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Musharraf resigned to the writing on wall?

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf appears to be reconciling to the writing on the wall about his uniform, but Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto wants him to make a public announcement on proposals discussed between them over this and other issues by Thursday.

Gen. Musharraf is now reportedly willing to give up both his uniform and his plan for re-election from the sitting electoral college in its dying days.

In return, the only assurance he apparently wants is that after the general elections, the political parties will back him for a fresh five-year term in the new parliament.

Gen. Musharraf’s emissaries carried this message over the weekend to London, the epicentre of Pakistani exile politics, where large delegations of the two main Opposition parties, Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), are meeting their respective leadership to plot the next steps in the unfolding political drama back home. The President’s new “package” for this “grand national reconciliation” is said to include an amnesty from corruption cases for all political leaders, and lifting the bar on two-time Prime Ministers from holding the office a third time.

Director-General Inter Services Intelligence Lt. Gen Ashfaq Keani, who accompanied Gen. Musharraf on his July trip to Abu Dhabi for a meeting with Ms. Bhutto, National Security Council secretary-general Tariq Aziz, President’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hamid Javaid and a well-known businessman Iqbal Z Ahmed have spent the last few days in London for “backchannel” negotiations with Ms. Bhutto. They reportedly held a final round of talks with her on Monday.

On Tuesday, the word from London was that the PPP leader wants Gen. Musharraf to make a public announcement by August 30 that he will not submit himself as a candidate for president in uniform, a day before the PPP executive meets in London.

Ms. Bhutto’s counter-proposals also include the demand for an interim government of national consensus at the centre and in the provinces ahead of the elections, with one-third representation for the PPP.

If Ms. Bhutto pulls this off with Gen. Musharraf’s co-operation, she can be expected to race back to Pakistan ahead of Mr. Sharif to presenting this as a hard-won victory for democracy that she achieved through some tough bargaining.

At the meeting, she is said to have made her position clear: stand for re-election in uniform from the sitting electoral college and the PPP resigns its seats; stand for re-election from this electoral college as a civilian, and the PPP will only abstain or boycott the proceedings; submit for re-election to the next parliament as a civilian, and the PPP votes in favour.

In preparing to concede ground to the Opposition, the presidential camp also appears finally to be making a realistic assessment of the ground situation: the re-election of Gen. Musharraf in uniform is bound to be challenged in court, and would lay the ground for a street agitation. The Nation reported that the President was now willing to even give up his power to dissolve Parliament, but the Dawn differed and said the President’s one condition was that hi s powers will remain untouched for the entire new term.

Mr. Sharif, encouraged by the verdict in his favour by the Supreme Court enabling his return to Pakistan, is said to be in no mood to participate in reconciliation.

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