LONDON, July 5: Pakistan’s opposition politicians will meet in London this weekend to try to agree on a strategy for general elections expected to be held later this year. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will host the two-day Multi- Party Conference aimed at producing an action plan to ensure President General Pervez Musharraf step down before elections later this year.

“The MPC is an initiative to remedy Pakistan’s deteriorating political situation and to present a viable alternative to the prevailing dictatorship,” said spokesman for Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s absence from the conference, confirmed by her spokesman, will inevitably stir speculation that she is working on some sort of power sharing deal with Gen Musharraf, whereby he is re-elected president and she could become prime minister for a third time, once corruption charges against her are dropped.

However, Ms Bhutto told

BBC radio on Thursday she had not made a deal with the general.

“There has been a dialogue, but there has not been a settlement, and in the absence of a settlement I can tell you very categorically that General Musharraf is contesting independently, and we are contesting independently,” she said.

Ms Bhutto is sending a delegation from her Pakistan People's Party, led by chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, to the MPC.

Regarded as liberals, Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto could forge a common front against a rising tide of religious conservatism in Pakistan.But there are considerable doubts about how long an alliance between two such strong personalities could hold.

There are no easy alliances to be made in Pakistan.

Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto together formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy after Gen Musharraf’s coup in 1999, but were bitter rivals through the 1990s.—Reuters