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| Govt winds up anti-corruption cell dealing with Bhutto cases | | |
ISLAMABAD, APR 5
Amid indications that efforts are on to reach a pact of cooperation with former Premier Benazir Bhutto, the government has wound up an anti-corruption cell dealing with cases against her before President Pervez Musharraf's bid to seek a re-election.
The indications that the government on the directives of Musharraf was moving towards mending fences with Bhutto, who heads opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), came yesterday when the government abolished the Special Operations Division of the National Accountability Bureau, mainly focusing on cases against Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari.
The Special Operations Division had been pursuing several cases against the former Premier and Zardari in international courts over money laundering and corruption charges.
Today Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed also said the abolition of the cell was a move to improve relations with political parties.
Ahmed, a former information minister and key figure in the present government who has been insisting a deal was in the offing with the PPP, said he had been saying this for a long time and now the indications were all there this was happening. "All I can say is the talks between the government and PPP have been very fruitful and have progressed smoothly. What happens in the future remains to be seen."
He also said that Musharraf would seek re-election this year before the next general polls.
Ahmed, however, did not specify whether Musharraf would seek re-election with or without uniform.
Musharraf himself had been stating in the recent past that he was constitutionally entitled to retain the post of Army Chief till the end of this year and would decide on the issue when the deadline approached.
Already his plans to get re-elected by the present national and provincial assemblies before they were dissolved drew widespread condemnation, and opposition parties including former Premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) threatened to oppose it tooth and nail.
Bhutto, meanwhile, has said the courts should decide the issue of the election of a President in uniform.
In a recorded address at a public meeting on the eve of the 28th death anniversary of her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she said the current judicial crisis following suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry had dented the "military-judiciary alliance" and this had strengthened the judiciary.
She said she and her party were with the people on the issue of the Chief Justice, 'Daily Times' reported.
Musharraf's confidants argue that the President was needed to get re-elected well before the general elections which he planned for early next year. Opposition parties said they would resist it by resigning en mass from assemblies.
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