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Sharief has little to show from US visit

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief won important concessions from US President Bill Clinton during talks in Washington this week despite signs relations between the two countries remained strained.

Those ties were ''fundamentally strong despite ups and downs,'' Sharief told a packed news conference in the American capital yesterday. US officials, however, said Washington wanted stronger action from Islamabad on a host of nuclear non-proliferation and security concerns.

Clinton told Sharief in an earlier meeting that ''more progress needed to be made on these issues before we would be in a position to remove all of the sanctions that had been put on Pakistan'' after it conducted nuclear tests in May, said Karl Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs.

Washington wanted Islamabad to refrain from testing and deploying nuclear weapons and exporting nuclear material. It wanted closer cooperation in combating terrorism, severed ties to the ultra-Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan, and help in apprehending suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.

The fugitive millionaire faces federal charges of conspiring to kill US citizens outside the United States. Pakistan had promptly extradited another suspect in the august seven bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and ''if Osama bin Laden is involved in terrorism, I don't think we support this kind of activity,'' Sharief said.

Washington slapped mandatory sanctions on India and Pakistan after the nuclear explosions conducted by them in May. Clinton agreed on Wednesday to waive some of these and renewed his pledge to settle a dispute over Islamabad's 658-million-dollar purchase of 28 F-16 fighter planes, delivery of which was blocked by US sanctions imposed in 1990.

Those restrictions remain in place but Clinton's decision to waive some of the newer sanctions clears the way for US commercial banks, the US Export-Import Bank, the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Trade and Development Agency to resume doing business with the countries until October next year.

Sharief declared yesterday that he would not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty under pressure. ''Coercive diplomacy is immoral and serves no purpose,'' he protested.

Pakistan ''will not sign the treaty under an atmosphere of coercion and pressure,'' he said. ''Sanctions must be removed...And all embargoes on Pakistan must be lifted.''

Sharief also dismissed concerns about plans to establish a legal system modelled on the Taliban's brand of Islamic law and orders to dispense justice through military courts.

''We do not see the Taliban, or any other country, as a role model for Pakistan,'' he said, adding that ideas under discussion were intended to deliver ''speedy and inexpensive justice.''

Others were unconvinced. Sharief's proposals would subject human rights to ''the executive's interpretation of Islamic law and its assessment of what is 'right' for a person,'' said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Human rights group called on the Pakistani government to withdraw its order to establish summary military courts, which it said would have three days to try, convict and sentence civilians suspected of disturbing law and order. ''Appeals will lie only with a higher military tribunal,'' Amnesty warned.

''Justice should be done promptly,'' Schulz said. ''But that does not mean that a government can establish military tribunals that deny the right to a fair trial.''

Pakistani and Pakistani-American protestors shadowed Sharief on his travels around Washington Tuesday-Thursday, waving placards describing him as ''crime minister of Pakistan.''

Washington previously eased some economic sanctions to prevent Pakistan from defaulting on its foreign loans and would support a restructuring of Pakistan's bilateral debts at Paris Club meetings later this month. Likewise, it would back resumption of the International Monetary Fund's stalled three-year, 1.6-billion- dollar lending programme in Pakistan.

That support was conditional, Inderfurth emphasised. ''What we are looking for is a strong, credible and fully implemented IMF package.'' The IMF's executive board was expected to discuss the programme next month.

US officials confirmed that New Zealand had agreed to lease, and eventually to buy, Pakistan's warehoused F-16 fighters for some 105 million dollars. The US administration would pursue using the revenue to add to the 157 million dollars already refunded to Islamabad through sales of aircraft components.

The F-16 issue has long been an open sore in US-Pakistani relations and a symbol to nationalists in the South Asian state that their Cold War ally had betrayed them.

According to Inderfurth, Washington was also watching closely Pakistan's treatment of US and other power companies, the South Asian nation's leading foreign investors.

Islamabad had announced its intention to terminate contracts to buy power from some of the firms, alleging that corruption had led to inflated energy prices. The corporations, however, argued that the cash-strapped government was simply trying to wriggle out of its contractual obligations. The dispute has held up a 700-million- dollar World Bank power sector loan.

UNI

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