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Islamabad: Pakistan's embattled President Pervez Musharraf has sent representatives to London to negotiate with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on a power-sharing pact, an official and newspapers said yesterday.
Pakistan is facing weeks of uncertainty and the risk of turmoil as army chief Musharraf prepares to secure another term as president while his opponents vow to end military rule.
"We are in contact with Benazir Bhutto, that's true,' said Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, referring to newspaper reports that three senior Musharraf confidants were in London for talks.
Bhutto has said any deal would depend on Musharraf taking confidence-building steps by the end of August.
She wants immunity for the actions of civilian governments from when she first came to power in 1988 and the lifting of a ban on a prime minister serving a third term. She is also demanding that Musharraf resign from the army and reforms that would ensure a fair election.
"If our negotiations fall apart, we can always turn to the other political party," she told Newsweek magazine in its latest issue, referring to Nawaz Sharif's party.
Qazi flays PPP chief
Meanwhile, the chief of the six-party religious alliance Majlis Muttahida-e-Amal and leader of Jamat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said Bhutto's meeting with Israeli Ambassador to United Nations Dan Gillerman recently has caused irreparable damage to the Palestinian cause.
"We strongly condemn Benazir meeting with the Israeli envoy and urge all the parties across the political spectrum to condemn this meeting," he said yesterday.
Bhutto confirmed meeting Gillerman at a dinner in New York but said it was a sudden face to face contact and not a planned meeting.
Qazi said any contact with Zionist administration without a just solution to the Palestinian issue was a violation of the principled stand taken by the founder of nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He said Israel had been unleashing atrocities on Palestinian Muslims under US patronage for too long.
The MMA chief said US presidential candidates were hurling threats of attacking Muslim sacred places and Pakistan. "In such a scenario holding meetings with Zionists and US officials was detrimental to Palestinian interests," Qazi claimed.
- With additional inputs by Wajid Ali Wajid Correspondent
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