July 28, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 12, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 27: President Pervez Musharraf's dash to Abu Dhabi on Friday could mark a big climbdown by him if he had met self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto there to discuss Pakistan's political future and thus formally recognised her political role, political sources said.

Spokesmen from both sides neither immediately confirmed nor outrightly denied that the two political foes had met in the capital of the United Arab Emirates after General Musharraf flew there from Islamabad on a hurriedly arranged trip and Ms Bhutto from London, leaving an important meeting of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders.

But the widely reported story created shockwaves at home and abroad on a day the country was already shaken by a second suspected suicide bombing in Islamabad within 10 days that killed at least 13 people and the assassination of an important spokesman for the Balochistan provincial government in Quetta.

General Musharraf had repeatedly described both former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom he toppled in the Oct 12, 1999, and Ms Bhutto as corrupt and said they would have no political role in the country so long he was at the helm of affairs. He also enforced a decree disqualifying both of them for prime ministership because they held the office twice each, though for short-lived tenures.

Contacts between the government and the PPP had continued probably over the past two years on issues such as a full transition to democracy, free and fair elections, possible power-sharing as well as the controversy over whether the president should continue as army chief, but the sources said a face-to-face meeting between General Musharraf and Ms Bhutto could mark a sea change in the situation.

It could also be a political and moral victory for Ms Bhutto and a godsend response to a virtual anti-PPP coup staged by Mr Sharif in London by forming a new alliance — the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) — without its main ally in another opposition grouping — the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) — and what is regarded as the largest opposition party which got the largest number of votes in the Oct 2002 elections.

The political sources said while Ms Bhutto would risk isolation from most opposition parties by talking to President Musharraf, she could also gain if she persuaded him to doff his uniform before seeking re-election.

The president’s one-day visit to Abu Dhabi came at a time when he seems to have been politically weakened by a spate of events at home within this month, such as the military operation earlier this month against militants at Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, the subsequent spate of suicide attacks, and last week’s Supreme Court ruling reinstating Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry whom he had sought to be removed.

He has also come under external pressure after a recent report by American intelligence agencies concluded that Al Qaeda had gained safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas after a now collapsed truce between the government and pro-Al Qaeda militants.

PPP's main spokesman in Islamabad, Farhatullah Babar, said he was not aware of any Musharraf-Bhutto meeting but would not deny it took place.

However, presidential spokesman Major-General (Retd) Rashid Qureshi said no such meeting was scheduled and came close to denying it, saying it had not taken place “to the best of my knowledge”.

One political observer, who did not want to be identified, said if the Abu Dhabi meeting had actually taken place, it could be a sort of replication of what then military ruler General Mohammad Yahya Khan did when he turned to Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the fall of former East Pakistan in December 1971.

“One military ruler sent a plane to New York to bring Mr Bhutto to take over after defeat and another military ruler himself takes a plane to Abu Dhabi to meet his daughter after concluding that things have gone wrong,” the observer said.

Despite the ambiguity maintained by both sides the issue of PPP-government contacts are likely to fuel speculation and a war of words between the PPP on the one hand and Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N and other components of the APDM on the other.In their latest broadsides, PML-N has accused the PPP of violating a Charter of Democracy signed by Ms Bhutto and Mrs Sharif in London last May by maintaining contacts with the regime.

The PPP does not deny the contacts, which it says are only aimed at facilitating a “transfer to democracy” and, in turn, accuses the PML-N of having its own secret contacts with the government.

The PPP does not see its conduct as a violation of the charter, which it says does not debar any party from making contacts.

The relevant paragraph of the charter says: “We shall not join a military regime or any military-sponsored government. No party shall solicit the support of military to come into power or to dislodge a democratic government.”