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| India-Pakistan |
| Talks stalled: Benazir |
| 2007-09-02 |
| Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said on Saturday that she had not yet reached a power-sharing deal with President General Pervez Musharraf, but was planning to return to the country soon. “No understanding has been arrived at and we are making our own plans to return,” she told a press conference in London, adding that her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would announce the precise date of her return on September 14 in Pakistan. “I plan to return to Pakistan in the next few weeks to work for a moderate, a democratic Pakistan.” Bhutto said that negotiations with Musharraf had stalled but added they had been “80 percent successful”. She believed that a “core” within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) had “created a fuss” over the negotiations. Asked what the unsuccessful 20 percent of the talks related to, Bhutto said: “What was left was one and a half points pertaining to the sovereignty of parliament and the presidential and parliamentary elections.” Musharraf aides who had been in London for talks with her have now gone back to Pakistan, she said. She later indicated that if a successful deal was agreed, she expected that Musharraf would give up his military uniform. “I am definitely under the impression that if there is an understanding with the PPP, General Musharraf would seek re-election as a civilian,” she told Sky News television. Bhutto said at the press conference that Nawaz Sharif had embarked on a “personal vendetta” against Musharraf. She added that officials would keep the United States informed of progress in the talks and said she had met British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Friday but did not give further details. Responding to questions whether her return to Pakistan could destabilise the country, she said: “I want the country to be secure and I want my people to be happy so I stayed away five years, but in these five years, I saw my country destabilised by my absence.” |
| Posted by:Fred |