Bhutto expects Musharraf to quit as military chief

BRITAIN: Pakistan's exiled former premier, Benazir Bhutto, said Gen. Pervez Musharraf had agreed to step down as army chief in a move she believed would happen before the next presidential election.

Such an agreement would be a key step forward in political negotiations for a power-sharing deal with the opposition.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press Wednesday in London, she added that corruption charges would be dropped against her and dozens of other parliamentarians as part of ongoing negotiations to restore civilian rule.

Musharraf and Bhutto, a two-time prime minister, have been in talks for months about a pact that would protect the general's troubled re-election bid from looming legal challenges and public disenchantment with military rule. In return, Musharraf is expected to give up his role as army chief, and Bhutto will return to contest parliamentary elections.

"We're very pleased that Gen. Musharraf has taken the decision to listen to the people of Pakistan by taking the decision to take off the uniform," Bhutto told The Associated Press. "I expect that he will step down (as army chief) before the presidential elections, but that is for the president to say," Bhutto said. There was no immediate reaction from Musharraf to Bhutto's comments.

Earlier, a close Musharraf ally, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, confirmed the two sides had reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's military role.

Envoys for the U.S.-allied president have been trying to work out a pact that would rescue his bid for another presidential term.

Bhutto and other opposition leaders argue the constitution obliges Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, to give up his post as military chief before he asks lawmakers for a fresh mandate in September or October.

Musharraf has said the constitution allows him to be army chief until the end of 2007. He has not said what will happen after that.

A remaining stumbling block in a power-sharing deal is the balance of power between Parliament and the president, who has the power to sack the prime minister and dissolve the legislature. Bhutto fears future leaders could be sacked again.

Bhutto said she hoped for a breakthrough in the negotiations "in the next few days" and that Musharraf's silence on his decision to step down as military chief "could be a tactical rather that strategic retreat" until all issues have been resolved.

"Time is running out," she said, warning that a breakdown in talks could spark street protests in Pakistan.

Musharraf has seen his authority erode since March, when he tried unsuccessfully to remove the Supreme Court's top judge. The move triggered protests that grew into a broad campaign against his continued rule.

The court reinstated the judge in July, raising expectations that it will uphold legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election. The court on Wednesday admitted a petition filed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, against Musharraf's dual role as president and military chief.

Last week, the court ruled that Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister toppled in 1999 who is also living in exile, can return to Pakistan ahead of parliamentary elections due by January.

Sharif quickly denounced Musharraf as a dictator who must be removed from the political scene.

The prospect of Sharif making a tumultuous return has added to the urgency of an accommodation between Musharraf and Bhutto, who share a relatively liberal, pro-Western outlook and stress the need to prevent the political crisis from destabilizing the nuclear-armed nation.

London, Thursday, AP