Bhutto assures Sharif no deal in offing with Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Amidst reports that representatives of President Pervez Musharraf held talks with her for a possible rapprochement, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto met deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif in Dubai and assured him that no deal was in the offing with the government.

Bhutto, who lives in self exile in Dubai, held a surprise meeting with Sharif on Saturday and discussed the political situation in Pakistan, the media reported on Sunday.

During the meeting, Bhutto assured Sharif that no deal between her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Musharraf was in the offing and that only routine talks were being conducted with government emissaries.

Their meeting follows remarks by Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed that talks between Musharraf's confidants and Bhutto aimed at a rapprochement had entered the "semi-finals".

The government had also recently disbanded a special anti-corruption cell dealing with cases against Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. However, Ahmed said that though the cell has been disbanded, the National Accountability Bureau probing corruption cases against Bhutto has not closed any case against her or any other politician.

The leaders of Bhutto's PPP and Sharif's PML-N parties, meanwhile, played down their sudden meeting in Dubai as saying that Sharif had gone there to see the baby of his daughter and Bhutto dropped by to meet him.