Bhutto is close to clinching a deal to back Musharraf if he lifts the ban on her serving a third term as PM and drops criminal charges against her.
LONDON: Self-exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she is close to clinching a deal to back Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf if he lifts the ban on her serving a third term as prime minister and drops criminal charges against her, a media report said on Sunday.
Bhutto said Musharraf had struck a "confidential agreement" on stepping down as army chief, and had accepted her return in principle but was still blocking it ahead of the elections expected later this year, according to a report from Islamabad in The Sunday Times.
She said she hoped to return by October to lead her party's election campaign. There was no indication in the report as to where and when Bhutto made the statement.
Her confirmation that she is poised to cut a deal with the beleaguered General came as Britain and the United States warned Musharraf they would abandon him if he does not give way to an elected prime minister, the report said.
The warning was made by Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, and senior western diplomats in a flurry of overnight phone calls last week that forced Musharraf to ditch plans to impose a state of emergency, it said.
The report said Rice's intervention was made at 2AM on Thursday morning, just hours before the emergency was due to be announced, and reflected growing American and European frustration with Musharraf's rule, despite his role as a crucial ally in the war on terror.
The General quickly abandoned his plan, and his government later released a statement confirming his commitment to elections.
Britain and America believe the emergency plan was aimed at postponing parliamentary elections. Senior diplomats said the countries now regard Musharraf as an accident-prone incompetent who created the crisis engulfing him.
The report quoted Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, former head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service saying: "The Americans now realize he is more of a problem than a solution."
According to the report, Rice told Musharraf that imposing an emergency would be a political disaster which would be resisted by Pakistan's newly assertive judiciary, media and opposition.
The biggest threat to his presidency remains Iftikhar Chaudhry, the reinstated chief justice, who is now expected to rule on a series of petitions challenging Musharraf's plans to save his presidency.
According to the report, diplomats believe the immediate trigger for Musharraf's emergency plans was the first of these challenge, the petition by Sharif to be allowed to return to Pakistan and fight the elections.
The government lost another battle last week, when the Supreme Court backed a petition from Bhutto demanding that the country's electoral lists be red rafted to include an estimated 30 million "lost" voters.
Britain and America now believe the return of Bhutto and Sharif is crucial if Pakistan is to have a chance of stability, and they no longer believe Musharraf is the only leader they can rely on in the war on terror, the report said.
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