By Malladi Rama Rao in New Delhi
New Delhi, July 28, (asiantribune.com): The beleaguered Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf has staged a big climb down publicly. He has entered into ‘mother of all deals’ with a ‘willing ‘Benazir Bhutto so that he ‘survives’ and the army moves to ‘backstage’.
It is a win-win deal for both. The details are still officially wrapped in secrecy. But broad contours are available. Musharraf will dissolve Parliament and invite Benazir or a person acceptable to her to form an interim government. Parliament will meet from Monday for its last session, according to a cryptic announcement made in Islamabad even before Musharraf returned home.
Musharraf’s air dash to Abu Dhabi on Friday to meet the PPP leader in self-imposed exile is ‘a political and moral victory’ for Benazir. The event also highlights the importance of Bhuttos in contemporary Pakistan politics. Also unmistakable is the irony of the situation.
HISTORY REPEATS
At the fall of Dhaka in 1971, the then military ruler, Gen Yahya Khan, had turned to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and sent a plane to New York to bring him home. Now another military ruler has himself taken a plane to Abu Dhabi to meet his daughter after losing all his gambles.
Benazir is trying to use the situation to her advantage. Her plan is not to give any room to critics to say that she had ‘mortgaged interests of democracy’ at the altar of political and personal expediency. Such impression will mark the beginning of the end of Bhutto charisma.
BHUTTO CONDITIONS
So another round of ‘final’ talks cannot be ruled out to help her blunt the weapons in the armoury of Nawaz Sharif, her one time foe turned friend, who has again become her adversary.
In a deft move, last week, Mr Sharif staged a coup of sorts, isolated her and floated a new alliance — the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). This way he made redundant Benazir dominated Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), which had fought the October 2002 elections.
Bhutto presented a five point plan to Musharraf, reports say. The plan calls for a round table conference of all political parties to form a national government, free, fair and transparent elections; a new electoral roll by integrating the old (2002) and the latest defective ones, general amnesty and withdrawal of cases against her, and Musharraf’s re-election without uniform by new parliament.
She also wants Musharraf to leave the knitty-gritty of his second term as President to the new government.
Musharraf, it appears, has no difficulty to accept these conditions, which have been vetted in London and Washington. He only would like to reformulation of the phraseology. He has been assured of full cooperation by Benazir for his re-election.
WIN-WIN DEAL
It is a win-win deal for both. On the one hand he is getting what he wants – second term and respite from the political crisis besides a formal back seat to the army as the Americans want.
On her part, Benazir gains from Musharraf doffing off his uniform and thus avoids risking isolation politically.
The Army also gets the respite it is looking for in the wake of Lal Masjid operation, which for the first time in Pakistan history exposed the army to public ire.
There are a spate of reports in Pakistan papers and TV channels and each report had its own spin. Interestingly, most reports emanated from the Benazir camp, according to an Arab journalist covering the event.
PAK MEDIA SPIN
For instance, The Dawn said quoting unidentified ‘highly placed’ sources that the talks remained ‘inconclusive’. The respected daily also quoted another source privy to the talk process which preferred to call it a “deadlock”, saying differences over the timing for the general to doff his uniform, and Ms Bhutto’s insistence on returning to Pakistan before the general election remained the contentious issues.
“But neither he nor any other person close to the process of talks of the last few months was prepared to describe it (Musharraf-Benazir talks) a failure”, the Dawn added.
The Geo News quoting sources close to the two leaders, reported that the meeting that lasted for over an hour ended. The channel said it was not a one-on-one meeting and some important Pakistani and Arab personalities and Western diplomats were also present there.
“The UAE interior minister’s son acted as the mediator between the two sides,” Lahore based English daily, The Daily Times, which is known to be pro-Musharraf, said quoting its own sources. Only Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief accompanied the President on the visit prompting The Dawn to say that it gave ‘credence’ to reports that it may be a sojourn aimed at national reconciliation.
Like The Dawn, the Geo News also spoke of “a deadlock after Bhutto refused to endorse Musharraf as president in uniform for another term”. The channel said that Bhutto was asked to endorse Musharraf in uniform for the next term and in return the government would remove the constitutional embargo on her becoming prime minister for the third time.
However, The Daily Times, again quoting ‘political observers’ said, “There was no deadlock in the talks on the uniform issue”. It added that a deal between the PPP and President Musharraf was likely to be signed “soon”.
DENIAL MODE
PML Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed also told the Geo News TV channel that there was no deadlock in the Musharraf-Benazir negotiations on the president’s uniform issue. Ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also said “the president’s uniform was not an issue in the talks with the PPP”. He added that the PML may share power with the PPP after the general elections.
As remarked at the outset, both the Musharraf government and the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP) are in a denial mode on the meeting between Musharraf and Benazir.
“The top aides of both President General Pervez Musharraf and Chairperson PPP Benazir Bhutto on Friday drained their energies in trying to conceal the news of the meeting that took place between the two leaders in Abu Dhabi. Instead of giving details of the meeting to media persons, they denied the reports of any such meeting”, The News said while reporting that Musharraf wanted to meet Nawaz Sharif also but the former Prime Minister had declined the invitation.
-Asian Tribune-
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