By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf Thursday rejected a two-day ultimatum by exiled opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to close a power-sharing deal under which he will step down as army chief.
“While the president believes in dialogue and deliberations on all important issues, he never works under any pressure or ultimatum,” Musharraf’s spokesman, retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, said in a statement.
While the deal with the former prime minister is in the final stages, the issue of embattled president’s military status when he seeks re-election by parliament this autumn remains unresolved, Qureshi told Pakistan’s Dawn television.
A senior cabinet member said Wednesday that the matter had been settled.
Bhutto set a Friday deadline for the resolution of last obstacles following long talks on a range of points, including the closure of corruption cases against her and constitutional amendments to allow her to serve a third term as prime minister.
Bhutto held the post twice between 1988 and 1996, after which she went into self-imposed exile in London and Dubai under the threat of prosecution.
Musharraf, an army general who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and went on to become a key US ally, is under increasing pressure by the opposition to separate the presidency from the army.
Bhutto had demanded that he step down as army chief before the end of the year. But emboldened by his recently weakened position, she is now pressing the general to shed his uniform – described by him as his “second skin” – before he seeks re-election by October 15.
Despite a number of defections from the ruling party to the opposition, the president can still count on gaining the two-thirds majority in parliamentary assemblies required to secure a further five-year mandate.
With the rise of Islamic militancy and political instability in Pakistan, the US is believed to back the deal between Musharraf and Bhutto in view of liberal aspects of their platforms.
In a sign of increasing agitation in the presidential camp, Musharraf earlier this month summoned security chiefs to discuss the possible imposition of a state of emergency.
The president then publicly backed away from the idea following telephone discussions with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
As the sides hammer out the Islamic country’s political course in London, the White House refrained from commenting on the specifics of the deal and the contentious uniform issue.
“The primary concern for the United States in Pakistan is that there be free, credible and transparent elections,” US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Wednesday.
Pakistan is also due to elect new parliamentary assemblies within three months of the presidential vote.