Gen meets Bhutto, strikes deal: Officials

In several interviews on Sunday, Bhutto would not confirm or deny she held talks with Musharraf in a meeting that officials said took place on Friday in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi. Musharraf, who returned overnight from a two-day lightning visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, also stayed silent on the issue.

But Bhutto said her Pakistan People’s Party had long been in talks with the government about restoring civillian rule. “We have already said that our negotiations are going on and we have achieved forward movement on some matters,” Bhutto told Pakistan’s Geo television. “But there are some matters on which there are two opinions and we have to look further into these issues.”

Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, and Bhutto are widely reported to be working on an alliance designed to bolster the increasingly embattled President’s political strength while allowing the opposition leader to return home and become prime minister for the third time. A key sticking point has been Musharraf’s reluctance to resign from the army — the source of his greatest strength — to meet opposition groups’ demands of a return to civillian rule.

“We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform,” Bhutto told KTN television. “Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand.”

Musharraf had no immediate comment, his spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi said on Sunday.

An alliance between the two could strengthen Musharraf by bringing the secular, liberal opposition into his government amid growing concern about a rise in Islamic militancy, a move Pakistan’s Western allies would welcome.