Is there a 'deal'?

President General Pervez Musharraf and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto are both natural allies and natural adversaries - a paradox that keeps clouding the national political horizon with confusion and uncertainty. The two are natural allies because they hold almost identical ideological perceptions, reject Talibanisation and enjoy the support of the West, especially of the United States of America.
This perceptional commonality has bred hope among their well-wishers and foreign friends that they would join hands to help obtain 'enlightened moderation' in a Pakistan that is fully supportive of secular and liberal forces in the region and beyond. Various individuals and entities have, therefore, been working behind the scenes to forge a working relationship between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto.
Despite occasional denials from both sides reports keep coming in to the effect that senior presidential aide Tariq Aziz and Benazir Bhutto's confidant Rahman Malik have had met a number of times to pave the way for rapprochement between their leaders. In what way the United States has been prodding them to come closer falls in the realm of secret diplomacy, but the possibility that it could have happened has never been ruled out by the discerning people.
The latest burst of speculation that a "deal" has been cut between the President and Benazir Bhutto was triggered by the government decision to wind up its Lahore-based anti-corruption cell of the National Accountability Bureau. Headed by a senior bureaucrat who had earned the weird notoriety of being Bhutto's nemesis, the cell had been scouting in Pakistan and abroad the so-called Bhutto's loot and plunder but had failed so far to make a case for her prosecution.
As soon as it was known that the cell had packed up, reports started pouring in that the closure of this cell was an unmistakable sign of a "deal". Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, who has always held that back-channel contacts between Benazir Bhutto and the Establishment were in place, was again in the fore-front. The "deal" players are right now moving from "quarter finals to semi-finals", he claimed in a private channel interview. Another federal minister, Babar Ghauri, also reportedly hinted at the possibility that a deal was in the making.
But they were vehemently contradicted by the ruling coalition's most powerful man, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. "No such thing is happening", he asserted at a news conference he addressed soon after his meetings with the President and the Prime Minister. PPP leaders Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Sherry Rehman also denied the "deal" and the PML (N) leaders simply did not believe that a "deal" was possible.
How could such a deal be possible at least at this late juncture, because President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto are also natural adversaries. Given their definition of power, as amply demonstrated when he is and she was in power, it is inconceivable that Bhutto would accept prime ministership with Pervez Musharraf in the presidency. And, more so now that authoritarian rule seems to have done its natural tenure. Maybe some of her party men from the feudal class would like to hitch-hike on the band-wagon and, maybe also, some of her workers are feeling excessive cold being in the wilderness for too long, but her pragmatic and shrewd mind would say 'no'.
Yet the question remains as to why a well-placed and well-informed person like Sheikh Rashid should insist that a deal is about to be cut, especially when a person like Shujaat Hussain denies it with all the force at his command. One plausible explanation could be that the Sheikh may be speaking on behalf of those who are presently engaged in the Herculean task of diluting the impact of anti-Musharraf movement that has been kicked up in the wake of presidential reference against the non-functional Chief Justice M Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The lawyers' movement is far more dangerous for the government than that by the political opposition, united or divided, because for the first time the civil society has come to fore. You can do politics with politicians, make alliances and even cut deals with political forces but not with the members of civil society. But Sheikh Rashid is eternally optimistic. Let's wait to hear his next spin on the "deal".