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| Benazir can return, contest polls but not become PM: Prez aide | | |
ISLAMABAD, NOV 28
Former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto could return home and contest next year's polls but cannot become prime minister, a confidant of President Pervez Musharraf has said, raising speculation that a political rapprochment between the military ruler and the PPP leader is in the offing.
Musharraf's confidant and President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said Bhutto can return to the country and contest the next elections but there is a constitutional bar on her becoming prime minister.
Hussain's comments caught the Pakistan People's Party by surprise. "It is indeed a very significant comment and we are trying to verify whether it could be corroborated by the government," PPP spokesman Faratullah Babar told PTI here.
Significantly, Hussain differentiated Bhutto's case from that of Nawaz Sharif, saying the former leader who was deposed by Musharraf in a military coup in 1999 could neither return home nor stand for elections for at least 10 years.
The PML-Q leader's comments came as Bhutto flew from US to London yesterday and had an unscheduled meeting with Sharif during which she reportedly convinced him that it was not the right time for opposition MPs to resign as demanded by a section of leadership of Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) on the issue of recent amendment to sections of the rape law.
If Hussain's comments made in an interview in London to Dawn newspaper were made with Musharraf's backing, it marks a significant departure from his earlier stance.
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