KARACHI, April 21: Musharraf administration negotiators had sounded out the PPP on government formation at the centre following the October elections on condition that Benazir Bhutto was debarred from returning home for 20 years.

The proposed period was later reduced to 10 years, People’s Party Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim said in a Dawn Dialogue interview here the other day. But Mr Fahim said his party had rejected any deal with the regime that entailed keeping Ms Bhutto out.

He said Gen Pervez Musharraf’s personal secretary Tariq Aziz and the ISI’s top brass were among those who had tried to win him over in the days before the Jamali government was finally cobbled together.

Mr Fahim said there was no way his party would accept the LFO because he believed that neither an individual nor the Supreme Court had the right to amend the Constitution.

“We’re committed to defending the 1973 Constitution and at the moment I don’t see any opening in the deadlock,” he said.

The PPP leader said his party was asking the government to respect the aspirations and rights of the people and parliament.