KARACHI, Nov 8: In a latest development giving rise to all sorts of speculations about a possible deal between the PPP and the government, Asif Ali Zardari, the interned and ailing spouse of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was flown into Karachi from Islamabad on Friday, to see his ailing mother.

But shortly after reaching Karachi, Asif rejected the deal theory, and said: “I have come to see my ailing mother. I have not been released but shifted from Islamabad. I have come here in anguish, so, there is no question of any deal. Please don’t talk about it.”

He said this in a brief chat with newsmen at the Ziauddin Hospital as he was being taken to his mother’s room.

Authorities had mounted massive security net at the airport where hundreds of slogan-chanting People’s Party workers had gathered along with top leadership to greet Asif with ‘jeay Bhutto’ slogans. He was driven straight from the airport to the hospital in an APC, to see his mother.

Owing to security net and the PPP workers, the media could not talk to him at the airport. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider had also travelled by the same flight, and when the PPP workers spotted him coming out from the domestic departure, they started raising ‘Jeay Bhutto’ slogans.

Over 70-year-old Bilquees Zardari is suffering from sever chest disease, which the hospital sources described as bilateral bronco-pulmonary pneumonia. According to sources, she is also having some heart problem.

Three rooms of the Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton have been declared sub-jail. According to Agha Siraj Durrani, a friend of Asif, the arrangement is for two days for the time being, but he was not sure of further plans.

Asif’s father Hakim Ali Zardari categorically denied that his son had been flown in as a part of some deal with the government.

He said there would be no compromise.

Asif’s mother, he said, was in sever pain for the last three days and he had been shifted to the city to see his mother.

Sources close to the family said an attempt was earlier made to enable Asif to see

his mother but the authorities did not give any attention to that.

Analysts believe that the current softening of the government attitude could be owing to a possible negative fallout if his mother’s health deteriorated further.

They also maintain that the regime is also trying to make the people believe that Asif’s shifting is part of the so-called ongoing secret deal.

Such a perception would further the establishment’s objective of creating more misunderstanding between the ARD and the MMA components so that a strong anti-regime policy platform did not succeed in forming the government.