General Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan president, and Benazir Bhutto, his exiled rival, have almost reached a power-sharing agreement, a minister said today.
The two have been conducting not-so secret negotiations for months on such a deal, with Ms Bhutto, who has lived outside of Pakistan since 1998, calling for Gen Musharraf to step down as head of the army and become a civilian president.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the railways minister and a close ally of the general, said the issue had been settled.
"There is no more uniform issue. It has been settled and the president will make an announcement," Mr Ahmed told a news conference.
The pressure on Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto, who twice served as prime minister, to strike a bargain intensified when the supreme court last week ruled that Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister overthrown by Gen Musharraf in 1999, can return from exile in London.
Mr Sharif has said he intends to go home before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, beginning in mid-September. He has been gaining popular support, whereas Ms Bhutto may have damaged herself politically in being willing to strike a deal with the highly unpopular Gen Musharraf. Behind the scenes, the US has been pushing the two to make a deal ...
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