Exiled former prime minister Benzir Bhutto is not considering lending her support to embattled President Prevez Musharraf, the Khaleej Times newspaper reported on Monday.
Benazir assured her rival, former premier Nawaz Sharif, at a recent meeting in Dubai that she was not holding any such talks with the government, the newspaper said, quoting a top official from her party. The report comes after officials said Musharraf has been in negotiations to win the support of Bhutto, now in exile in Dubai and London, and her opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Musharraf is currently facing multiple challenges to his eight-year hold on power. The most serious is a crisis over his removal of the country's chief justice. The removal has sparked a series of protests backed by Bhutto's party along with other opposition groups.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid and Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Ghuri both said on private television channels late Thursday that a deal with the PPP was in the making. "Serious negotiations are underway between the two sides but it is not necessary that these will succeed," Rashid told AFP on Friday. He declined to elaborate when asked what the two sides were demanding from each other.
But a senior PPP official told the Dubai-based newspaper that no pact was being considered. "There is no deal with the government," PPP vice chairman Makhdoom Fahim told the paper. "This is a government ploy to distract the attention of the burning issues in the country."
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