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| Mush must quit top military post, says Bhutto | | |
29 Jul,ISLAMABAD, Pakistan:
President Gen Pervez Musharraf must quit his military post if he is to continue as Pakistan's ruler, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said, after officials confirmed the two held secret talks on a possible power-sharing pact.
Bhutto, the exiled leader of the country's largest opposition party, said on Sunday she would not confirm or deny the meeting with Musharraf that officials said took place on Friday in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on Geo television from London, she said she would not comment on the meeting unless there was an official announcement, but that her Pakistan People's Party had long been in talks with the government about restoring civilian rule.
"We have already said that our negotiations are going on and we have achieved forward movement on some matters," Bhutto said.
"But there are some matters on which there are two opinions and we have to look further into these issues."
Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, and Bhutto are widely reported to be working on an alliance designed to bolster the increasingly embattled president's political strength while allowing the opposition leader to return home and become prime minister for the third time.
A key sticking point has been Musharraf's reluctance to resign from the army, the source of his greatest strength, to meet opposition groups' demands of a return to civilian rule.
In an interview late Saturday with KTN television, she said: ``We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform. Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand.''
Musharraf returned to Pakistan overnight, and had no immediate comment, his spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi said Sunday. An alliance between the two could strengthen Musharraf by bringing the secular, liberal opposition into his government amid growing concern about a rise in Islamic militancy, a move Pakistan's Western allies would welcome.
A deal that resulted in Musharraf giving up his military title would also likely be welcomed by Washington as a step toward restoring civilian rule, said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a politics professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences.
``They want to strengthen Musharraf who has been supporting the war on terrorism, and his further weakening would damage their cause in Afghanistan,'' Rais said. ``They (also) want peaceful transition in Pakistan to elected government.''
Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Musharraf and Bhutto ``held a successful meeting'' in Abu Dhabi on Friday. He would not elaborate on the subject of the talks. He also said Friday's meeting was the second meeting of the leaders, the first being in January.
Musharraf is expected to seek re-election when his term expires in October, and he wants the current crop of politicians in federal and provincial assemblies, who supported him five years ago and have not faced election since, to vote again.
The opposition says the 2002 elections of those representatives were fixed, and insists that lawmakers chosen in parliamentary elections due at the end of 2007 should elect the next head of state. Observers say the new crop of lawmakers may be less inclined to support Musharraf.
A pact would likely require Musharraf to lead changes to the constitution to remove a ban on anyone serving as prime minister more than twice, and make sure corruption charges that have dogged Bhutto for years go away. Both moves would allow Bhutto, served as prime minister once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, stand for premier again.
In exchange, Bhutto's party might agree to support a presidential vote before the parliamentary elections with Musharraf still in uniform, if he gave assurances he would resign from the military soon after the legislative elections.
Musharraf has been politically weakened by a failed bid to remove the country's independent-minded chief judge, which drew days of street protests amid suspicion he was trying to head-off possible legal challenges to his continued rule.
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