November 5, 2007 (LPAC)--Upset with President Musharraf for declaring a state of emergency in Pakistanon Nov.3, US Secretary of State, Condi Rice, has said in Jerusalem on Nov. 5 that the United States would review its $150 million-a-month assistance program to Pakistan in response to the declaration of emergency rule. There are reports that Secretary Rice, on her way back from Israel, may arrive in Pakistan at anytime to get first-hand knowledge of the prevailing political situation.

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino urged Musharraf to hold free and fair parliamentary elections in January as scheduled and for the general to take off his uniform. "The government of the United States is deeply disturbed by the proclamation of emergency in Pakistan," she said. "We cannot support a path that does not put them back on the road to democracy."

The Pentagon's spokesman said Undersecretary of Defense for Policy was supposed to head a US delegation for the talks beginning on Nov.6, but he will not go until political conditions in Pakistan improve. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on President Musharraf to return his country to a constitutional democracy.

Fury in Washington centers around its observation that President Musharraf has declared the state of emergency to scuttle the scheduled holding of general elections in January 2008, to bring back democracy in Pakistan. On Nov. 5, President Musharraf promised foreign diplomats that planned elections would be held, and defended his controversial decision to impose a state of emergency, state media said. However, the emergency laws in Pakistan allows the martial law administrator not to hold general elections for at least one year.