LONDON — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto brought her party’s leaders to London Friday for talks on whether to accept a power-sharing agreement with President Pervez Musharraf that could bring an end to military rule. The daylong session ended without a conclusion. More talks are set for Saturday.Bhutto discussed a possible date for a return home with Pakistan People’s Party members. She could return in early October, said Wajid Hasan, a party spokesman.
Gen. Musharraf and Bhutto have been wrangling for months over the terms of an agreement that would shore up his fraught re-election bid and allow her to return to contest parliamentary elections. However, she has yet to win a commitment from Musharraf on two critical points — that he would step down as army chief and give up the power to dismiss the government and parliament.
“We would like to know firmly whether the government agrees to our proposals for the transition to democracy or not,” Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party in Pakistan, told The Associated Press. “If we conclude that the talks are leading nowhere, we have a number of options,” including breaking them off, Babar said.
The party was waiting for written answers to questions raised with MusharrafÂ’s officials, Hasan said.