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 "That leader will enjoy the support of the Pakistani people," said Tariq Fatemi, a career diplomat for 35 years who retired as ambassador to Washington in 2004.
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, "appears lost, confused and unsure of himself," Fatemi said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading think tank, hours after Musharraf decided against declaring a state of emergency....
Instead, officials said in Islamabad, he plans to go ahead with free and fair elections. Depending on circumstances, Fatemi said in Washington, these could be held later this year or sometime next year.
"Pakistani politics have become more uncertain and more tumultuous," said the envoy, who was also ambassador to the European Union. "And a declaration of emergency was given serious consideration."
Election of Musharraf to another term was "out of the question," Fatemi said. "Every political party would oppose it."
In fighting terror insurgents, the Musharraf government "has done as much as it can," he said. "A civilian government would be more effective."
The retired envoy urged American politicians, meanwhile, to act with restraint in U.S. election campaigns. "Statements made in public, especially in the campaign," do not help, Fatemi said.
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 Last week, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said in a foreign policy speech: "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." That statement, which Obama has not repeated in campaign appearances since, prompted Pakistani officials to warn against U.S. incursions into their country.
Musharraf's fortunes took a sharp turn downward earlier in the year with a failed bid to oust the country's chief justice and a bloody army assault on a pro-Taliban mosque in Islamabad, Fatemi said.
"Every sector of society rose up against him," the ex-diplomat said.
Asked if Osama bin Laden, the head of the al-Qaida terror network, was alive and in a remote area of Pakistan, Fatemi replied tersely: "I have absolutely no idea if Osama is dead or alive."
[Associated Press;
By BARRY SCHWEID]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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