The ongoing dialogue between President General Pervez Musharraf and PPP Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto hit a snag on Thursday, after the PML leadership refused to support a constitutional amendment to pave the way for Benazir to become prime minister for a third term. Sources told Daily Times that the “Chaudhrys of Gujarat” – PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – and other PML leaders told the president at a meeting at Aiwan-e-Sadr that they would not support a proposed constitutional package to remove the bar on prime ministers serving a third term.
After the president briefed the meeting on the proposed deal with Benazir, the PML leadership told the president that party legislators were against any constitutional amendment which would prove to be their “political demise”. Chaudhry Shujaat told the president that his party would neither prepare such a package nor support its passage through parliament.