US wishes Zardari well after heart attack

The United States on Wednesday wished Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari well after he suffered a minor heart attack.
“We have seen the reports. We certainly wish him a speedy recovery,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Zardari’s illness sparked media reports that he is contemplating resignation, but loyalists ruled out the idea he may step down.
“He had a minor heart attack on Tuesday. He flew to Dubai where he had an angioplasty. He’s in good health now,” Mustafa Khokhar, adviser to the prime minister on human rights who sits in the cabinet, told AFP. “There’s no question of any resignation,” he added.
US officials would not speak openly about any consequences for the Pakistani leader’s political future.
The 56-year-old head of state left Pakistan for treatment after falling ill in the midst of a major scandal over alleged attempts by a close aide to seek US help to limit the power of Pakistan’s military.
His illness also comes at a time of deep crisis for Washington’s fraught anti-terror alliance with Pakistan.
Ties between the United States and Islamabad plummeted after a US commando raid killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, north of the capital Islamabad, in May.
Relations slid to a new low last month when NATO air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border, prompting Pakistan to boycott an international conference in Bonn on Afghanistan’s future.
President Barack Obama on Sunday expressed condolences to Zardari for the deaths but said the incident was not a “deliberate attack.”