LAHORE, April 23: Former ambassador and MNA Begum Abida Husain says if an American magazine says Gen Musharraf contacted Ms Benazir Bhutto thrice, there must be some truth in it, notwithstanding the denials by the general.

Talking to reporters on Monday, she said if the PPP chairperson was suggesting ways for the general to submit himself to the popular will, she was only doing her duty as the leader of the country’s biggest party.

She said at present all bars and the major political parties were urging Gen Musharraf to quit, which clearly showed that the space on which the general was standing was shrinking by the day.

A member of the PPP’s think-tank, Beguma Abida, said political elements that had aligned themselves with Gen Musharraf’s uniform were no longer in a position to protect their mentor. Similarly, she said, Gen Musharraf, without his uniform, could not protect his supporters.

She said the judicial crisis created by Gen Musharraf’s crude attempt to bully and coerce Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry into submitting his resignation as the Chief Justice of Pakistan was worsening with the passage of time.

Saying that Justice Chaudhry had been given a rousing welcome in Peshawar and Hyderabad, she hoped that the Lahore High Court judges would also receive Justice Chaudhry when he would address the bar there.

Begum Abida is due to launch on Tuesday (today) the electoral campaign of a PPP candidate to a provincial seat in Jhang.