By IANS
Islamabad : Are former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in a power-sharing deal to rule for five years each?
Yes, says Bhutto; no says a Sharif aide, two Pakistani newspapers reported Monday citing a purported interview the former gave to an unnamed British publication.
Bhutto, in the interview, is quoted as saying: "Mr Nawaz Sharif and I agree. Mr Nawaz says 'You should be the prime minister for the first five-year term,' and after that five-year term he wants to run."
"So I hope that we can move forward. That's a verbal discussion between us, but that is what he has said to me," Bhutto added
The News and The Nation Monday carried the interview.
Sharif's top political aide Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who is secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), immediately denied Bhutto's claim.
"The people will decide in fair elections who forms the government," Jhagra maintained.
The Bhutto claim, whatever its veracity, is a clear signal to President Pervez Musharraf who has promised elections for later this year, that she means to keep her political options open.
Bhutto said that she had struck the deal with Sharif so that the pair could present "a united front to put the army back under civilian control".
Bhutto and Sharif, now in exile, have served two terms each as prime ministers that were cut short. Sharif slapped a number of corruption charges against Bhutto when he was in power.
The two have, once sworn political enemies, made a common cause against Musharraf since May last year, meeting frequently in Dubai and in London.
At the same time, Musharraf and Bhutto are under Western pressure to come together to give Pakistan a stable government that would hold the Islamist extremists at bay. Western think-tanks and media have called them "natural allies."
Both Bhutto and Musharraf camps have admitted to behind-the-scene talks over a long period aimed at an electoral alliance between then former's Pakistan peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid), the party Musharraf is backing.
While Bhutto has laid a precondition that Musharraf shed his military uniform as the army chief, the president has said that Bhutto cannot return before the election and if she does, she would be tried in various corruption cases.
Musharraf has also said that Sharif cannot return till he completes 10 years in exile that began in 1999. Both Bhutto and Sharif have publicly stated that they would return home in time for the elections and face the consequences.
The Musharraf-Bhutto talks and Bhutto-Sharif alliance have been a topsy-turvy affair with considerable mistrust among the three camps and among Pakistani politicians, analysts say.
Going by media reports, Bhutto has been talking simultaneously with the Musharraf and Sharif camps. Sharif too has been hobnobbing with the religious opposition conglomerate, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).
Bhutto also acknowledged in the interview that her Pakistan People's Party had been discussing a potential deal with Musharraf that would allow him to stay on as president so long as he relinquished his role as the army chief.
"We've had discussions, but they have not moved forward … We've left all options open," Bhutto was quoted as saying.