After the crisis-hit Pakistani government indicated that elections would be held shortly, a senior American official stated on Friday that Washington was “encouraged” by the announcement.
The coalition government’s term ends on August 12, but officials have suggested that they may dissolve the assemblies earlier than that, maybe on or around August 8.
US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Elizabeth Horst told Pakistani journalists in Washington, “We are hoping for a free, fair, and peaceful election.”
“It’s for the Pakistani people to decide who they want to elect. We do not support one party against the other. We support the rule of law and democracy in Pakistan.”
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the State Department, insisted that the US “supports the peaceful upholding of fundamental democratic principles such as free media, free speech, and freedom of assembly” in Pakistan in response to the polling question from last week.
According to Zafar Iqbal, Special Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, if the NA is dismissed after serving its full term, elections will be held before October 11.
As the term of the current rulers draws to a close, Horst, the director of the US State Department’s Pakistan bureau, added last week that the US would cooperate with any government chosen by Pakistanis.
At a seminar in Houston on the future of relations between Pakistan and the US, Horst declared, “We do not have any opinion on any political candidate or party.
Constitutionally, the term of the parliament ends on August 12. However, Marriyum Aurangzeb, the minister of information, stated that no date for the general election has been announced.
