Musharraf aides in UK to salvage deal with Benazir

Three senior negotiators are understood to have arrived here from Pakistan to dissuade former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from walking out of the deal with President Pervez Musharraf.

London, Aug 27 : Three senior negotiators are understood to have arrived here from Pakistan to dissuade former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from walking out of the 'deal' with President Pervez Musharraf.

The Secretary General of the National Security Council, Tariq Aziz, Chief of Staff Lt-Gen (retired) Hamid Javed and businessman Iqbal Z. Ahmed, who are said to be close to Musharraf met Bhutto on Sunday afternoon.

No information relating to the meeting could be obtained.

Bhutto is expecting a firm 'performance' by Musharraf by the end of the month on at least two of the promised CBMs - lifting of the constitutional bar against a person becoming Prime Minister for the third time and constitutional immunity for governments which ruled between 1988 and 2000.

They said if Musharraf planned to get himself elected by Septenber 15, then he would have to make a move at least on these two CBMs before the end of the month.

"We are not looking for empty verbal assurances," a senior PPP leader said, perhaps trying to anticipate the message that the official negotiators have brought from Musharraf.

The lingering disagreement between the two is said to be on the powers of the President to dissolve the assemblies.

Bhutto believes that Musharraf doesn't need her party's support for re-election from the current assemblies, but the General is afraid of the PPP joining the opposition in the streets against him. Therefore, he is said to have approached Bhutto with a proposal.

If the current negotiations with Musharraf's team fail, the PPP believes it can always serve as a third force in the future political scheme of things.

Bhutto has called a meeting of PPP's CEC comprising about 50 members on August 28, the Dawn reported.

She is expected to consult the CEC on the outcome of her meetings with the official negotiators and take a firm decision one way or the other after due deliberation.

ANI