By IANS
Islamabad/Lahore : Pakistan's rightwing opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Sunday said a reported political deal between President Pervez Musharraf and exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was "detrimental to democracy" and threatened to agitate against it.
According to Liaquat Baloch, a central leader of the MMA, Bhutto had "closed the way for moving with the rest of the people" by meeting Musharraf last Friday.
Speaking on the expected lines, Baloch was among the first to react to the deal that the media have called "the mother of all deals", noting that all in the air for weeks, it had surprised both supporters and opponents of Musharraf.
The MMA leader said Bhutto had sought to align with Musharraf when the latter's regime had lost grip on all matters.
He specifically pointed to the continuing violence and suicide attacks that have intensified since a military operation razed the controversial Lal Masjid in Islamabad earlier this month.
Clearly indicating support to the protestors, Baloch said the MMA would resume public meetings, processions, train marches and road caravans, The News said Sunday.
Under the widely reported political deal, Musharraf's re-election for a second term together with Bhutto's homecoming has become a possibility after a "broad-based understanding" reached between the two, the Pakistani media reported.
"A broad-based understanding between Musharraf and Bhutto was reached in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi," The News quoted a source privy to the deal as saying.
Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has consented to accept Musharraf as president for a second term, saying she would not oppose his re-election in September-October this year, The News added.
According to the "agreement", a neutral person may head a caretaker government that would conduct the general elections, also signalling an end to the present dispensation under Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The deal, the newspaper said, was worked out at meetings held by Musharraf's aide Tariq Aziz and Rahman Malik, a former intelligence sleuth close to Bhutto.
After disclaimers from the Bhutto camp and a pro-forma official denial Saturday, confirmation was pouring in about the "secret" meeting between the two leaders in the UAE Friday.
Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid, a known Musharraf confidante, told a TV channel that the two had also earlier met Jan 24.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi said the constitution would be amended, ostensibly as part of the "deal", to remove a two-term restriction on Bhutto becoming the country's prime minister for the third time, according to Geo.
The understanding between the two would give a clear edge to Musharraf to be re-elected with a claimed 56 percent majority in the electoral college for the presidential polls.
"We have 56 percent of the total electorates with us and there is no difficulty to see President Musharraf through with a constitutional requirement of returning with simple majority," disclosed an official who also helped Tariq Aziz in fine-tuning the first phase of the understanding with Bhutto.
What appears to have been worked out is the political aspect of the deal, media reports say. However, the legalities of Bhutto's return need to be sorted out.
"If I would be an elected prime minister, I would like to have a strong president like Musharraf so that we can jointly deal with militancy, extremism and terrorism," Bhutto was quoted as saying to one of his confidantes before she left London to meet the president in the UAE.
The political fallout of the reported deal could be considerable on the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid) that would have to make severe adjustments with the very people whom it has politically opposed.
Among those pushed on the offensive by the Musharraf-Bhutto deal are another exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, religio-political parties like the Tehrik-e-Insaaf of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and political outfits that earlier this month formed the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) with Nawaz Sharif as one of its leaders.
There were reports that Musharraf or one of his aides could also meet Nawaz Sharif. But Mushahis Hussain Sayed, a top Musharraf aide and secretary general of PML (Qaid), denied reports that he had been given any such assignment, The Nation said.
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