KARACHI, 28 October — The United States ambassador to Islamabad, Wendy Chamberlin, held out an assurance during the course of an interview yesterday that Washington, even after the end of the Afghan crisis, will take care of Pakistan, and that a 50-year welfare plan for Islamabad was being prepared.

"We will not abandon you after what you have done for America" she told The News in an interview in Islamabad allaying fears that the presence of US forces in Pakistan would in any way endanger Islamabad or its nuclear facilities.

She parried a question on regional politics but thought that statements emanating from India about Pakistan’s role in Kashmir were at variance with the official stand of the US government on the subject. The Kashmir dispute has to be resolved by India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris themselves, Chamberlin who has been at her present assignment for nearly a year, maintained.

"The United States is here for a long haul. We are going to remain with Pakistan for a long time. The kind of programs and assistance and measures that we are in the process of putting in place are long term. They are not short term," Chamberlin asserted.

"We have taken a number of measures as we have turned a new page and are looking for building up a long-term relationship with Pakistan," she said.

"That means the US companies will be investing here because the US government will be providing them insurance to invest here. You do not come and invest for a year and then abandon and leave. You invest for a long time.. for fifty years or so," she emphatically said.

Asked about the protests in Pakistan and what she felt about these demonstrations, Chamberlin said: "My personal analysis is that (it is) a small group of extremists who are being exploited by political parties anticipating elections next year and they need an issue. This is a good issue."

She said those staging protests were a small minority who don’t have much of a following but they have found an issue they can exploit.

"Extremists are getting these people to rally, putting them all up and I find this very dangerous for the people who have been led into this.

"But I think the major political parties are not doing that. The major political parties are supporting your government’s policies on this. That says something," the US ambassador said.