Boehner To Meet With Musharraf

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) will meet with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Saturday after a stop earlier this week in Iraq to visit U.S. military personnel.

Boehner meets with Musharraf at a time when the Pakistani president faces increased pressure in his own country for working with the U.S. and back in the states for not doing enough to track Osama bin Laden or limit the flow of Islamic militants in and out of Afghanistan.

Musharraf met earlier in the week with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte as factions within Pakistan roil increased opposition to their president for working closely with the U.S.

Earlier this year, Democratic presidential candidates argued about the diplomatic wisdom of working with the Pakistani president or going around him to pursue bin Laden or other al Qaeda fighters in the country's mountainous Peshawar region.

“It is critical that we continue consistent, coordinated efforts with others in the international community to defeat al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists who have declared war on us," Boehner said in a statement upon arriving in Pakistan Friday. "Without question, our relationship with Pakistan is at the forefront of this strategy, and I will reaffirm to President Musharraf the importance of his country’s cooperation in the face of a determined enemy."