On the edge

Islamabad, Sept. 3 (AP): President Pervez Musharraf will make a final attempt to seal a deal with exiled former Premier Benazir Bhutto that could keep the general in power, a senior official said today.

Envoys for Musharraf and Bhutto will meet tomorrow in Abu Dhabi, railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Dawn News television. However, a spokesman for Bhutto said no such meeting had been arranged.

Musharraf and Bhutto have been discussing a pact that would shore up the US-allied President’s troubled re-election bid while allowing the former Prime Minister to return to Pakistan and contest parliamentary elections.

But Bhutto has failed to win a public commitment from Musharraf that he will quit as army chief or give up the presidential power to fire the government.

Musharraf’s supporters have baulked at Bhutto’s demand that she be allowed to return and run for a third term as Prime Minister.

With Musharraf up for re-election between September 15 and October 15, Ahmed said there would be no time for another round of negotiations and that the talks would likely fail. “I don’t think the hard-liners of both sides will allow” agreement, Ahmed said.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party said no such arrangements had been made for a meeting at any level.

He said the party had told the government about its outstanding concerns but had received no response.