ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi and party secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Saturday discussed with President Pervez Musharraf issues relating to power-sharing talks with Benazir Bhutto and the president’s re-election.

Sources privy to the meeting said it was decided that nomination papers for the president would be filed keeping in view Supreme Court’s verdict in the dual-office case.

The meeting, also attended by the president’s chief negotiator Tariq Aziz, discussed the strategy in case of an unfavourable verdict by the Supreme Court on the president’s re-election.

According to the ruling PML leadership, the Constitution allowed the president to be re-elected in uniform.

The sources claimed that Gen Musharraf had advised the PML leadership to enter into ‘direct negotiations’ with the PPP on a post-election power-sharing formula in order to ensure a strong performance.

The meeting discussed the campaign launched by the APDM following the deportation of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia and chalked out a strategy to counter it. The meeting was ‘optimistic’ about the outcome of the meeting the president’s chief of staff, Hamid Javed, held with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Friday in which matters relating to high court judges’ appointment were discussed.

The participants expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would not “disappoint the government by annulling the president’s candidature” for the next term.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and four others have moved the Supreme Court against the holding of two offices by President Pervez Musharraf. The JI on Friday requested the apex court to constitute a full court comprising all judges, rather than a nine-member bench, to hear petitions against the president.

The PML leadership, the sources said, had reassured the president that the ruling coalition had sufficient votes to re-elect him from the present assemblies.

The issue of the president’s uniform was also discussed and the PML leaders were taken into confidence on the timing of the president doffing the uniform.

Mushahid Hussain said in a statement that Gen Musharraf would be Mr Musharraf when he would take oath of his office for the next term.