[QODLink]
Central & South Asia
Bhutto: No power-sharing with army
Former Pakistan leader says the roles of PM and military chief must be seperated.
Last Modified: 30 Jul 2007 04:12 GMT

Bhutto said the prime minister and the army chief should be two different persons [Reuters]

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister, has said she will not agree a power-sharing deal with Pervez Musharraf, the man currently in that job, as long as he also remained the head of the army.

Bhutto told Al Jazeera she wanted to return from self-imposed exile to contest Pakistan's next general election, due no later than early 2008.
But she will not do that before Musharraf quits his military post, gives up the powers to dismiss the prime minister and dissolve the parliament, and assures free and fair elections.
 
Bhutto and Musharraf secretly held talks over a possible joint governance of Pakistan on Friday.
Al Jazeera's Karl Stagno-Navarra spoke the opposition leader on Sunday in the UK where she has been addressing her supporters.
 
"The government has denied the said meeting but my party and I are in contact with Musharraf," she said.
 
"This is about a transition to democracy. Right now the prime minister is also the army chief, and that has blurred the lines."
 
Power talks
 
Bhutto, 54, said her party also wanted Musharraf to meet the growing public demand for free and fair elections.
 
Pakistani media on Saturday quoted a government minister confirming that both leaders had met in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
 

"I don't want the people of Pakistan to face terror at the hands of the Taliban and their allies in al-Qaeda and become refugees in foreign lands"

Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani PM

A potential deal would include changing part of Pakistan's constitution which currently blocks Bhutto from becoming prime minister again.
 
Bhutto said it was "very important to deal with who's there".
 
"He is the person there and if we can find a way to get the uniformed presidency out of the picture, we can find a way to get democracy back... we will be looking forward," she said.
 
"We're not there yet," she told SKy News television from Leeds.
 
'Pakistan at crossroads'
 
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, Kamal Hyder, earlier reported that the government was keeping quiet about the whole affair.
 
Hyder reported that Pakistanis did not want a government decided by Musharraf as he has become unpopular, but nor do they want Bhutto "because she is not in a position to stem the wave of anger in this country".
 
Bhutto served as prime minister twice in the 1980s and 1990s, but fled the country to avoid corruption charges after her second government collapsed.
 
Musharraf has been a staunch ally of the US in its war on terror but with pressure increasing from Washington, Bhutto has tried to position herself as a champion of democracy.
 
Earlier this month, she attacked Musharraf's record of fighting extremism, but left open the possibility of returning to the country while he was still president.
 
Bhutto said she wanted to return to national politics to help stabilise her country because it has become a struggle for "the heart and soul of Pakistan".
 
"We stand at the crossroads. Very critical choices have to be made between the forces of the past and the forces of the future. There is militancy, terrorism and violence," she said.
 
"I don't want the people of Pakistan to face terror at the hands of the Taliban and their allies in al-Qaeda and become refugees in foreign lands. I want to try and save my country, if I can."
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
Topics in this article
People
Country
Featured on Al Jazeera
An unflinching portrait of physical labour in the 21st century.
The stark choice between a fascist or an imperialist course in Syria should be discarded for a third and better course.
Israel's propaganda machine carefully chooses its words to assert illegal ownership over Jerusalem and Palestine.
As Western fears grow over Iran's continuing nuclear programme, we ask how a military strike could impact the region.
<  > 
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go