President Pervez Musharraf and former PM Benazir Bhutto have reached an understanding on a deal that will facilitate the General's re-election in uniform.
ISLAMABAD: With a day to go for Pakistan's presidential election, President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have reached an understanding on a deal that will facilitate the General's re-election in uniform and give the PPP chief amnesty from corruption charges to ensure her return to the country.
The draft 'national reconciliation' agreement was agreed to by both sides late last night after hectic negotiations that saw the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) suggesting several amendments to address its concerns, including the holding of fair and transparent elections and the dropping of corruption charges against Bhutto, who has been in self exile since 1999.
Opposition parties continued their efforts to undermine Musharraf's bid to get re-elected without giving up the post of army chief, with 35 members belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-Nawaz and Awami National Party on Friday resigning from the NWFP provincial assembly.
The members of the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies will form the electoral college for the presidential poll on Saturday.
Eighty-six members of the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, and 78 members of the assemblies of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan had quit on October two.
All the lawmakers who have quit are members of the newly formed All Parties Democratic Movement, floated by exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Bhutto has said that PPP lawmakers will not resign though they will not vote for Musharraf in the presidential poll as part of the reconciliation deal, thereby ensuring that the General will have the tacit support of her party.
The Cabinet approved the deal yesterday and it is expected to be promulgated as an ordinance by Musharraf on Friday ahead of the convening of the National Assembly for the presidential poll.
Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed today said the ordinance was moving in 'the right direction' and its approval was only a matter of hours.
Bhutto, who has also approved the draft of the deal, has said she will return to Pakistan from Britain on October 18 and that she did not expect the government to block her return.
"We expect there will be no obstacle in the path of my return," she said in London on Thursday.
On his part, Musharraf has conceded that Bhutto and the PPP have a role to play in Pakistan's politics. "In the process of national reconciliation, the People's Party and she have a role to play," he said.
Musharraf also noted that none of the charges against Bhutto had been proved.
Under the deal, the government is expected to grant a general amnesty to Bhutto and other politicians and bureaucrats who had held public offices between 1988 and 1999 and against whom corruption cases are pending.
The deal, however, does not cover Sharif, who returned from exile to Pakistan last month only to be deported back to Saudi Arabia.
The government and PPP are, however, yet to agree on several contentious issues, including the president's power to dismiss the government and a constitutional bar that prevents Bhutto, a two-time prime minister, from contesting for a third term.
PPP Senator and senior lawyer Farooq Naik said these issues would be decided later.
Meanwhile, a 10-member bench of the Supreme Court is today hearing petitions seeking a stay on the presidential election and challenging the validity of Musharraf's nomination papers.
In his remarks during the hearing, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, a meber of the bench, asked if the presidential poll could be held on October 10 or 13 but Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum said such a move would be a violation of the constitution.
The apex court will rule on the matter later on Friday.
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