ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The top State Department officials responsible for the alliance with Pakistan met leaders of the new government on Tuesday, and received what amounted to a public dressing down from one as well as the first direct indication that Pakistan’s relationship with the United States would have to change.
On the day that the new Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, was sworn in, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and the assistant secretary for South Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, also met with President Pervez Musharraf, whom they embraced as their partner in the campaign against terrorism over the past seven years, but whose power is quickly ebbing.
The head of the second biggest party in the new Parliament, Nawaz Sharif, said after meeting the two American diplomats that it was unacceptable that Pakistan had become a “killing field.”
“If America wants to see itself clean of terrorists we also want that our villages and towns should not be bombed,” he said at a news conference here. Mr. Sharif added he was unable to give Mr. Negroponte “a commitment” on fighting terrorism.
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