The United States does not want to return President Zardari to power or block Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan from winning the forthcoming election, said a senior US official while talking to a group of Pakistani journalists at a recent diplomatic reception.

Other US officials are equally enthusiastic in denying the general perception in Pakistan that the US government wants to influence the electoral process in Pakistan to bring in a friendly government.US officials, while talking off the record, say that they are aware of “the conspiracy theories circulating in Pakistan” and regret that the Pakistani media “do little to dispel such baseless theories”.

At a recent briefing at the State Department, spokesperson Victoria Nuland also regretted that “the Pakistani people don’t have good information” about US policies towards their country and stressed the “need to work harder to get that message out”. And the message the United States wants to send out during the election season is “we have no favourites among Pakistani politicians and we are looking forward to work with whoever is elected on May 11”.