Benazir and Musharraf hold talks

In a dramatic move President General Pervez Musharraf had reportedly held a short meeting with PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi on Friday. The meeting ended in a deadlock, one TV News channel reported. It is being said that it is their second secret meeting in the Emirates. However, no disclosure of the first meeting has been made yet.
Even about this meeting, official news channels in Pakistan were reporting that no such meeting took place. President Musharraf arrived in the United Arab Emirates for a short visit on Friday to hold talks with Emirate officials, but it seems the meeting between Benazir and Musharraf was on the cards because the PPP leader arrived directly from London for this meeting. Analysts say that a few western diplomats have also supported the meeting between the two leaders.
Details of the meeting were not available because Ms Bhutto immediately left for her Dubai home. President Musharraf on the second leg of his visit will arrive to Saudi Arabia to held discussion with King Abdullah with specific regards with counter-terrorism measures. The two leaders are expected to pledge their encouragement for economic co-operation, especially petroleum products to Pakistan.
There are also rumours in the air that a meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif is reportedly on the cards. Saudi authorities desire President Musharraf display a bipartisan approach.
Talking to a private TV channel, Federal Minister for Railways Shaikh Rashid said that he was not aware of the meeting between Musharraf and Benazir. If it took place it would be final meeting, he maintained. If the deal struck between the government and the PPP, it would far-reaching impact on the politics of Pakistan, the minister observed.
JI leader, Qazi Husain Ahmad said the meeting would not yield any thing substantial. The boat of President Musharraf is in a whirlwind, and he should quit. The JI leader repeated the only solution lies in implementing APC agreement; the meeting would not yield any benefit to Benazir and her party.
Reuters adds: Speculation intensified that President Pervez Musharraf and former premier Benazir Bhutto will form a power-sharing pact, as television channels reported they met secretly in Abu Dhabi. Musharraf flew to the Gulf state earlier in the day, and was expected to return on Sunday, after also visiting Saudi Arabia.
Three television channels - Geo News, Aaj TV and Dawn News - said Bhutto had also gone there from London and the two met secretly, but state-run PTV said officials had denied the reports.
Musharraf's spokesman former general Rashid Qureshi scoffed at the reports, while Wajid Shamsul Hasan, a close aide to Bhutto in London, said he was unaware of any meeting. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, was more forthcoming when speaking to Aaj.
"I don't know about the meeting, but this issue was discussed when we met the president the day before yesterday and we said doors should not be closed for such contacts," Hussain said. An alliance with two-time premier Bhutto could be his last chance, analysts say, unless he goes back on his word not to declare a state of emergency.
Musharraf has had no public engagements, and made no television appearances in the wake of the court decision, and rumours have inevitably filled the void left by his silence. On Friday one newspaper, The News, ran a front-page story, citing anonymous sources, saying Musharraf's fellow generals had advised him to step down.
A day earlier two papers, Dawn and The Nation, reported Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was under pressure to be the fall guy over the chief justice fiasco. For days there have been expectations heads would roll, the law minister and attorney-general among them. But none have. Despite official denials of the newspaper reports the rumours refuse to die down.
"Musharraf's time is up," a moustachioed man in his thirties was heard telling other customers queuing for bread in an Islamabad bazaar. "He has to face the music for what he's done." If Musharraf were to forge a partnership with Bhutto, who controls most liberal political party, they could form a bulwark against religious conservatives and militancy.
She has been in talks with Musharraf's emissaries for months. Bhutto wants all cases against her dropped, and has insisted Musharraf should give up his role as army chief. Many in her party believe she should have nothing to with a military leader on principle, but in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times last week she said she would only help him if it guaranteed that free and fair elections were held on time.