PESHAWAR, Sept 5: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has said that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is going to strike a political deal with President Pervez Musharraf to get cases against herself withdrawn and her bank accounts unfrozen.

Talking to members of the Peshawar Press Club here On Tuesday, the chief minister said the constitutional amendment proposed under the likely agreement was Benazir-specific, which would facilitate her politically and financially but ruin her moral standing on her return to the country.

Mr Durrani said Ms Bhutto had been criticising the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for endorsing the 17th Amendment, under which Gen Musharraf was to leave the military by the end of 2004 but he betrayed the nation on the issue.

He said Ms Bhutto had boasted that she would wholeheartedly fight against terrorism because Gen Musharraf and others had failed to end it but added that she would not find it easy to do so when she returned to the country.

The chief minister said the NWFP Assembly had passed a resolution for the early and safe return of Ms Bhutto to the country. Similarly, the NWFP advocate-general had argued in favour of former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif’s honourable return.

He said the MMA had introduced a culture of tolerance and understanding but it would never budge from its principled stand on political issues.

Mr Durrani said he had treated the opposition in the province on an equal basis on all fronts. He said his government had introduced reforms in industry, agriculture and other fields.

The chief minister distributed allotment letters of the Durrani Media Colony on the occasion.