Clinton To Plead For Sharifs Life

US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton will personally urge General Pervez Musharraf not to execute former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif even if he is found guilty of the charges against him.

This was revealed here yesterday by National Security Advisor Sandy Berger during a news briefing about the presidential trip.

Berger said the issue of the missing American, Donald Hutchins, who was abducted by militants in Kashmir five years ago, was also likely to come up in the discussions in Islamabad.

Jane Shelley, wife of Hutchins, has been trying to get information about what happened to her husband and whether he was alive. "We have talked to the Pakistanis on many occasions about this, and I believe this will come up while we are there," Berger said.

 

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Karl Inderfurth, also referred to the Nawaz Sharif issue in a briefing yesterday.

"We have made very clear in our exchanges with the new government in Pakistan our concern about Nawaz Sharif and others who are detained," Inderfurth said. "We have asked through our Ambassador that these people receive due process and their trials be fair and transparent, and we are watching them closely," the Assistant Secretary of State said.