By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has said opposition leaders in exile would not return before elections.
Musharraf ruled out electoral adjustments with any party and reiterated that the existing assemblies would re-elect him as president, Dawn newspaper reported Tuesday.
Musharraf made the remarks Monday while addressing the legislators of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and People’s Party Patriots at the chief minister’s House in Karachi.
According to sources, the president sidestepped the issue of his uniform and said he would talk about it after the elections, without specifying if he was referring to the presidential or general elections.
He emphasised that the present assemblies would not be dissolved before the expiry of their terms and said the ruling PML, the Functional League and Muttahida Quami Movement were electoral allies and urged them to muster people’s support.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Monday Musharraf did not strike any deal with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairperson and country’s two times prime minister Benazir Bhutto. There were reports that Musharraf had struck a deal with Bhutto during his visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Aziz said that there would be no alliance with PPP in the next general elections and the presidential elections would be held from Sep 15 to Oct 15.
Currently Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, also a former prime minister and the leader of the opposition party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, live in exile in Britain. Both of them have expressed their eagerness to return to Pakistan before the elections.