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Benazir, Sharief strike poll deal, Musharraf losing ground

The feared alliance between the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz, appeared to have already been clinched with Bhutto and Sharief, both in self-exile, reaching an understanding to have a co-ordinated strategy to contest the poll, the report said.

Under this deal, the PPPP will not contest in constituencies where the PML-N candidates are strong and vice versa, the report said, quoting PPPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

"It further cements political opposition against the government and acts as an impetus for the restoration of democracy," he said, but declined to speculate whether it would herald an alliance between Bhutto and Sharief to oust Musharraf, the report said.

Meanwhile, Musharraf, in a sudden and surprise meeting, tried to gain the support of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami, on Wednesday, the report said.

In the three-hour meeting with Hussain, Musharraf hoped that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the new religious party headed by the Jamaat, would join hands with pro-government forces to block Bhutto's new political party from winning the election.

Musharraf did not want the MMA to have any alliance with the PPPP, since Hussain had met Bhutto loyalist and PPPP leader Makhdhum Faheem a day earlier and also held talks to strike a political alliance with Sharief's PML-N.

But his efforts failed as Hussain refused to budge on account of his opposition to the government's policies, especially with regard to the crackdown on radical Islamic groups.

"The Jamaat and the military regime are poles apart. There is no shift in the Jamaat's policy," the Dawn report quoted the religious party's officials as saying.

Pakistan's Election Commission has recognised both the PPPP and PML-N to contest the election in October and said it would allot symbols to the political parties in a couple of days.

PTI

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