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Musharraf and Benazir finally meet: Mother of all deals?

* Shujaat appreciates meeting
* Rashid says deal in final stages
* President’s spokesman denies meeting, PPP leader claims ignorance

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and chairwoman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), met in Abu Dhabi on Friday and discussed the political situation in Pakistan, including the upcoming general elections and the president’s re-election from the current assemblies.
Geo news, quoting sources close to the two leaders, reported that the meeting that lasted for over an hour ended in 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, political observers say there was no deadlock in the talks on the uniform issue and that a deal between the PPP and President Musharraf was likely to be signed soon.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the channel that there was no deadlock in the Musharraf-Benazir negotiations on the president’s uniform issue. He said that this could be the final round of talks between the PPP and the government.
Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain appreciated the reported meeting between President Musharraf and Bhutto, saying they had not “committed a sin”.
He said the president’s uniform was not an issue in the talks with the PPP, adding that the PML may share power with the PPP after the general elections. 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,” sources told Daily Times.
Meanwhile, the president’s spokesman, Maj Gen (r) Rashid Qureshi, said that reports of a meeting between the president and the PPP chairwoman were “completely baseless”. “They are baseless, concocted. There is no truth in them,” Qureshi said.
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said he was not aware of any meeting between Bhutto and Musharraf. “I am not aware of it,” he told Daily Times.
A Pakistani embassy spokesman in the UAE said he did “not know anything” about the reported meeting, AFP reported. Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani denied that the president had met the PPP chairwoman in Abu Dhabi. “The government keeps its door open for talks with anyone but no such meeting has taken place,” he told a private television channel, Online reported.

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