WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday that relations with Pakistan will suffer if it does not probe irregularities in last month’s election and rerun votes if needed.
Donald Lu, the top US diplomat for South Asia, told lawmakers that the United States had “serious concerns” about the conduct of the February 8 election and ongoing disruptions of media and social media, including a prolonged shutdown of X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan, should it find that these irregularities are substantiated, should rerun elections where there’s been interference,” Lu told a sometimes raucous hearing of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
“We have enjoyed 76 years of partnership with this country. It will be an impediment to our relationship if Pakistan does not have a democratic process that upholds its own constitution,” Lu said.
Lu said the United States was not considering any major new military sales to Pakistan, a Cold War ally whose army and intelligence apparatus has long played a dominant role in politics and whose past links with Afghanistan’s Taliban soured ties with Washington.
Ahead of the election, former prime minister and cricket star Imran Khan was jailed and barred from running, with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party subject to a crackdown.
Khan’s candidates nonetheless won more seats than any party, but rival Shehbaz Sharif became prime minister in a shaky coalition between two dynastic parties.
Khan, who was removed as prime minister by a parliamentary vote two years ago, has frequently criticized the US military and has alleged that the United States engineered his removal.
Khan’s supporters have cited a leaked Pakistani diplomatic document that said that Lu had voiced alarm over the then prime minister’s relationship with Russia during the invasion of Ukraine.
Lu, who was repeatedly disrupted at the hearing by pro-Khan demonstrators, strongly denied that he ever tried to remove Khan.
“This conspiracy theory is a lie. It is a complete falsehood,” he said.
“We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan. We respect the principle that Pakistan — Pakistani people — should be the only ones choosing their own leaders through a democratic process.”
Lu, a career diplomat, said that he has received death threats and his family has been threatened over the allegations.
US warns Pakistan on ties over election irregularities
https://arab.news/2txxs
US warns Pakistan on ties over election irregularities
- Khan’s candidates nonetheless won more seats than any party, but rival Shehbaz Sharif became prime minister in a shaky coalition between two dynastic parties
French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist
- Deranque’s death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year
- Macron has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence“
LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is serving his last year in office, has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence,” and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.
“I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
“My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression.”
- ‘Fascist demonstration’ -
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organized by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor’s call for a ban, warning on X it would be a “fascist demonstration” that “over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe” were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said “it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists,” he added.
Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
Referring to her comments, Macron said everyone should “stay in their own lane,” but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.
Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
