Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and former political rival Benazir Bhutto have reached agreement regarding Musharraf’s military role, a key step toward a power-sharing agreement, a senior official said on Wednesday.
“Both sides have agreed on the issue of uniform,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close Musharraf ally, told reporters. Bhutto was quoted in a British newspaper making a similar comment, though neither she nor Ahmed elaborated.
Envoys for the US-allied military president and former prime minister Bhutto, who is planning a return from exile abroad, are trying to work out a pact that would help Musharraf secure another five-year presidential term.
Bhutto was quoted in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph as saying that the “uniform issue is resolved”. “The uniform issue is key and there has been a lot of movement on it in the recent round of talks,” Bhutto told the London-based daily.
Both Bhutto and Rashid said the two sides were close to an agreement but that there were still outstanding issues. Musharraf’s future is clouded by a clamour for an end to military rule, fallout from a lost battle against the judiciary.