Aides of President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto will be holding a final round of talks in the United Arab Emirates from Tuesday to "devise a strategy for the coming general election," a media report said.
The talks were earlier scheduled after Eid-ul-Fitr, but after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML-N president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain ruled out any truck with the PPP for the polls, the meetings were "urgently arranged in the UAE" as the leadership of Bhutto's party had "expressed serious reservations", The News quoted unnamed sources as saying.
"The top PPP leadership has asked the Musharraf camp to finalise all issues and define areas of cooperation in future, especially during the general election," a source was quoted as saying.
How Bhutto played into Musharraf's hands
"The fresh round of talks is said to be the final one and the future set-up of country's politics will be decided (during the parleys)," the report said.
Rehman Malik, a senior PPP leader and one of the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance promulgated on Friday by Musharraf to facilitate the withdrawal of corruption charges against political leaders, will represent the party in the talks.
The report said it was not immediately clear who would represent the government at the parleys.
The News also quoted an unnamed senior PPP leader as saying that the party's central executive committee has given Bhutto the authority to negotiate with anyone on behalf of the party.
According to PPP sources, Musharraf was "very thankful" to the party's leadership for its "cooperation" during the presidential elections on Saturday.
"These sources were sure that the Musharraf camp will openly support their party in the next general election," the report said.
The NRO was part of a last-minute deal reached by Musharraf and Bhutto to ensure that PPP lawmakers did not resign from Pakistan's national and provincial assemblies, thereby affecting the credibility of the controversial presidential poll that was boycotted by other opposition parties.
It is also aimed at facilitating Bhutto's return to Pakistan from a nine-year self-exile ahead of the general election scheduled to be held by mid-January.
However, both the beleaguered military ruler and the two-time prime minister have been criticised for the deal by other opposition parties.
