ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and two close aides of President Pervez Musharraf reached Dubai on Monday to make what is being termed here a last-ditch effort to strike a power-sharing deal following a deadlock in their London talks.

A federal minister said the two sides had a preliminary meeting on Monday and formal talks would begin on Tuesday. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, however, categorically denied that any meeting had taken place on Monday, but was non-committal about the possibility of to be held talks in the next few days.

Informed sources told Dawn that some presidential aides were expected to join the talks on Tuesday having been briefed by Gen Musharraf on his position on Ms Bhutto’s recent demands, including withdrawal of cases against her.

The minister said that secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC) Tariq Aziz and the president’s Chief of Staff Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Javed had met the PPP leadership in the UAE in an effort to end the deadlock created by Ms Bhutto’s ‘unrealistic’demands.

He said the talks were stalled when Ms Bhutto started giving an impression that she had set a deadline for President Gen Musharraf to hang up his uniform. He said the president had already made up his mind to quit the army post by the end of the year, but Ms Bhutto was trying to claim the credit for it.

The minister also said that another hurdle in the talks was Ms Bhutto’s insistence that all corruption cases against her should be withdrawn. He said Ms Bhutto wanted a “constitutional guarantee” so that no future government could re-open or revive these cases. He said the PPP chairperson should realise that things were not as simple as she considered them to be. He alleged that Ms Bhutto was playing a ‘personal game’ and not talking about her party.

The minister said that Ms Bhutto should also keep in mind that for implementing any constitutional package her party required the support of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) as the PPP could not get any amendment to the Constitution passed with 55 or so MNAs. Therefore, he said, Ms Bhutto, while making any demand, should keep in mind that it should also be acceptable to the PML.

He said the PML would never allow removal of the Article 58-2(b) from the Constitution as had been demanded by Ms Bhutto as the ruling party believed that the said article was the best guarantee against imposition of martial law in the country.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar disputed reports that Ms Bhutto had set Sept 14 as the day for announcing the date for her return to the country to provide more time to Gen Musharraf to announce the package proposed by the PPP.