Deal with Musharraf gives Bhutto graft amnesty

With a day to go for Pakistan's presidential election, President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto have reached an understanding on a deal that will facilitate the General's re-election in uniform and give Bhutto amnesty from corruption charges to ensure her return to the country.

The draft "national reconciliation" agreement was agreed to by both sides late last night after hectic negotiations that saw the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) suggesting several amendments to address its concerns, including the holding of fair and transparent elections and the dropping of corruption charges against Bhutto, who has been in self exile since 1999.

Opposition parties continued their efforts to undermine Musharraf's bid to get re-elected without giving up the post of army chief, with 35 members belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Awami National Party today resigning from the North-West Frontier Province assembly.

The members of the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies will form the electoral college for the presidential poll tomorrow.

Eighty-six members of the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, and 78 members of the assemblies of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan had quit on October 2.

All the lawmakers who have quit are members of the newly formed All Parties Democratic Movement, floated by exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Bhutto has said that PPP lawmakers will not resign though they will not vote for Musharraf in the presidential poll as part of the reconciliation deal, thereby ensuring that the General will have the tacit support of her party.

The Cabinet approved the deal yesterday and it is expected to be promulgated as an ordinance by Musharraf today ahead of the convening of the National Assembly for the presidential poll.

Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed today said the ordinance was moving in "the right direction" and its approval was only a matter of hours.

Bhutto, who has also approved the draft of the deal, has said she will return to Pakistan from Britain on October 18 and that she did not expect the government to block her return.