Pakistan’s political crisis deepened on Sunday after exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto vowed to return home having failed to reach a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf.

Key US ally Musharraf now faces the spectre of two ex-premiers flying home to challenge his shaky eight-year military regime, with Nawaz Sharif, the man he ousted in a 1999 coup, also pledging to come back.

On Sunday, Bhutto told the BBC the talks had stalled over the issue of parliamentary powers. She had demanded that Musharraf relinquish his power to dissolve parliament.

“I’m trying to get a parliament that is sovereign, that can tackle the issues of militancy and poverty that are at the moment the main trouble spots for Pakistan. I don’t want to see chaos and anarchy and bloodshed,” she added.

“I want to help the people of Pakistan have a peaceful, transitive way towards democracy, and that’s why we had this dialogue.”

Power-sharing talks between Pakistan’s embattled President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto have stalled but political compulsions are likely to push both back to the table, analysts said.

Musharraf and self-exiled two-time prime minister Bhutto have been sounding each other out for years but with Musharraf’s terms as both president and army chief due to end soon, they have intensified efforts to reach an agreement.

But Bhutto said in London on Saturday the talks had stalled and she planned to return to Pakistan soon even without an deal. She will announce details of her return on September 14.

Any agreement would likely see Musharraf stepping down as army chief before he stands for another term between mid-September and mid-October, while clearing the way for Bhutto, who still faces graft charges, to return to politics and take part in general elections due at the end of the year.

The two are natural allies, both opposed to Islamist militancy and in favour of free-market reforms. The West would like to see cooperation between moderates in the nuclear-armed country on the front line of the fight against al Qaeda and vital to tackling the Taliban in Afghanistan. But with Musharraf’s popularity plummeting, legal challenges to his rule mounting and former exiled prime ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif preparing to return home, Pakistan is facing the risk of turmoil.

WAKE UP TO MISRULE: EX-PM
West propping up Pervez: Sharif

Islamabad, pti: Exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif slammed the Western countries for “blindly” backing President Pervez Musharraf.

“The West should clearly differentiate between a democratic rule and misrule because he (Musharraf) is the one who has brought Pakistan to the brink of collapse. I only want that the West should take note of what he’s doing and withdraw support from a dictator,” The News reported here on Sunday, quoting Sharif as saying in London.