LONDON, March 21: Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif met here late Wednesday evening against the backdrop of the ongoing judicial crisis in Pakistan, reviewed the political situation in the country in some depth and tried to work out a mutual strategy to foil what they claimed were attempts by the government to impose emergency and postpone elections.

Sources close to the two parties dismissed as government propaganda reports suggesting that the two leaders had met in a desperate bid to save the ARD from falling apart as the PPP was suspected to have finalised a deal with President Pervez Musharraf and the PML-N was leaning too much towards the MMA for the PPP’s liking.

“There is no deal with the government, neither is it in the offing. Benazir is never going to enter into a deal with an army general. She has in fact signed a deal (Charter of Democracy) with the ARD colleagues to oust the generals from Pakistani politics and keep them out for ever,” said a source close to the PPP chairperson.

“The two, Benazir and Nawaz, have decided to stick together come what may. There is no misunderstanding between them. One knows what the other is doing and also why. So, there is no question of any falling apart in the ARD,” confided a PML-N source.

He said the PML-N appreciated Benazir’s serious reservations about the MMA. “We know she does not want to sit with them because MMA is a coalition partner of the government in Balochistan and that is a fact. We have no dispute with that. “She also suspects that the MMA is still hand in glove with the military-led government and would come to its aid if and when the chips are down for Musharraf. We simply cannot controvert her in view of what had happened at the time of passage of 17th amendment,” he added.

This was corroborated by the PPP circles here known to be close to Benazir Bhutto. They claimed that Nawaz fully understood why Benazir did not want to sit with the MMA.

“And she on her part also appreciated Nawaz’ efforts to convene an all parties conference aimed at forcing the government to hold fair and free elections under an interim government established in consultation with the opposition and conducted by an independent election commission,” the PPP sources said.

During the meeting, Benazir is understood to have expressed fears that in case a street agitation was launched on the eve of elections, and if it went out of hand the MMA would do their best to create a situation to enable the government to use it as an excuse to postpone elections.

The two, however, agreed that with President Musharraf continuing to be calling the shots from both the presidency and the Army House and soliciting votes for his supporters, it was not possible for the present election commission to hold free and fair elections.

The two are also said to have agreed to use all possible political means to force Musharraf to give up his uniform before elections, but while doing so they would see to it that Musharraf does not postpone elections by using some self-created law and order situation.

In their assessment of the situation following the judicial crisis, the two are said to have agreed that it had unsettled Musharraf and weakened him politically and he could be looking for ways to save himself by wooing the PPP and PML-N and jettisoning the PML-Q and the MMA.

The two, however, once again reiterated that come what may they would neither negotiate their return home with generals nor would they violate the charter of democracy to obtain a minority share in power in Islamabad with the army continuing to be in the driving seat.