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Govt envoys contact Bhutto, Zardari
LAHORE: In a bid to woo PPPP, [Pak People's Party Parliamentarians] the government has sent its military and political emissaries to Benazir Bhutto in Dubai and her spouse Asif Zardari in Islamabad, highly informed sources told Daily Times. They said two senior ISI officers had had dinners with Mr Zardari during the last 10 days and remained with him for hours. “They offered almost everything to him, except the return of his wife, in return for the PPPP’s support to the government. Mr Zardari refused these offers,” sources said. “Later, the ISI officers contacted Ms Bhutto in Dubai and sought time for a meeting but she refused to meet. “They called on Mr Zardari again and asked him to persuade her for a meeting with the government’s military emissaries,” sources said. Mr Asif did so and a high-ranked officer left for Dubai on Monday to meet Ms Bhutto. “The PPPP chairperson and the officer held talks on Tuesday,” sources said.

The government is also using the political channel to win the PPPP’s support on certain issues and has asked some politicians, who worked with the PPP, to talk to Ms Bhutto, Asif Zardari and PPPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim. In the first phase, former Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Wattoo met Mr Zardari at the Accountability Courts in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. “It seemed like a chance meeting, but actually it was a planned one,” sources said. They quoted Mr Wattoo as telling Mr Zardari, “I have advised the government to compromise with the PPPP as it is the largest party and the real political force in the country.” Sources said the government would send political leaders to Dubai and PIMS for talks. Mr Wattoo was not available for his comments.

This is a move Perv should have made a year and a half ago, rather than trying to build the PML-Q into more than it is. A Kemalist alliance with a secular party is a natural thing. The problem from Perv's point of view, I think (and I could be wrong) is that the Bhutto party's so heavily tarred with the corruption brush. But even Perv's got to see now that the Loyal Opposition in Pakland is more opposition than loyal, by a long shot. Perv's given in to them on many occasions, let them prosper when he could have smashed them, and they've consistently responded with venom. They want Pakland run by mullahs — period. All their occasional braying about democracy is lip service. They'd sooner have scrofula.

Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-06-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15103