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Is a Musharraf-Benazir deal in the offing?

ONCE again rumours of an imminent deal between the government and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have started taking the rounds with increasing frequency in Islamabad. There is, however, no official confirmation; so far, from either of the two sides that any such deal is being even discussed between them. In fact, the other day Benazir Bhutto herself dismissed these rumours by stating that there was no question of any deals with what she called the dictator or compromising on principles.

Her spouse, Asif Ali Zardari continues to languish behind the bars without being convicted of any crime even after the eight-year long prosecution. He has been either given bail or acquitted in 12 of 13 cases against him. In the last case, regarding the evasion of customs duty on the import of a BMW car, his bail application is pending before the Supreme Court.

So, the talk of a deal being in the offing between Benazir’s party and President General Pervez Musharraf appears rather futile and out of place at this point in time. And then there is this impression as well that another senior PPP leader, the imprisoned Yusuf Raza Gilani, former Speaker of the National Assembly has been made to pay a very heavy price for refusing to cross over to the King’s party. So, when the former Prime Minister rejected even the suggestion that there was any renewed contact between her party and the government in this regard one tended to believe her.

However, the rumours are refusing to die. Those who seem to have been taken in by these rumours contend that Zardari’s release through the courts was just around the corner, as according to them, any time soon he would get bail in the last case as well. In fact they believe that this last bail will be a part of the final package on which the two parties would strike a deal.

However, those who disagree with this assertion believe that Benazir would never agree to the release of her spouse in return for her support for a President in uniform. And they insist that even if Benazir agreed to this in a moment of desperation, Asif would perhaps spurn it, as the trade-off would only devalue his sacrifice of eight long years.

In the opinion of these circles there was nothing new in the so-called offer the government is said to have made to Benazir in the package deal this time. The party had already been offered the chief Ministership of Sindh twice before and once when it had appeared, soon after the general elections in October 2002 that the office of the Prime Minister would also go to the PPP.

And they also contended that even the offer of Chairmanship of the Senate, an office, only a heart beat away from the office of the all-powerful president, though highly tempting, could hardly be regarded by Benazir as such because in return she would have to pay the heavy political price of endorsing a President in uniform. The Supreme Court of Pakistan had set the fresh spate of rumours about the impending deal between Benazir and Musharraf in motion when it fixed a date last month for hearing the bail application of Zardari in the BMW case. Though on the due date the Supreme Court was adjourned without hearing the bail application, the rumours have continued to circulate.

And when the ruling party General Secretary, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed speaking in the upper house in support of the bill empowering Musharraf to keep the uniform as well as the office of the President even after December 31, called on his government to release the PML (N) chief Javed Hashmi, Gilani and Zardari in a spirit of reconciliation, it had appeared as if the rumours were after all not without legs. More so because Mushahid had even described the three as political prisoners negating the allegation levelled by the government that the three were involved in criminal cases.

The Prime Minister, the Information minister and the chief of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have since been trying to set the record ‘right’. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz answering a question at a media meet said that the three would have to seek legal recourse to get released. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid responding to a similar question on another occasion said that what Mushahid had stated in the Senate was his personal view. And the NAB spokesman the other day said, those who are calling the three, Javed, Gilani and Zardari as political prisoners were committing contempt of court. However, people claiming to be insiders continue to insist that Mushahid was only articulating Musharraf’s views as he had spoken in the Senate after having discussed the issue with the President who they said now seemed reasonably amenable to a calibrated rapprochement with the PPP.

The government has manipulated the media a number of times in the past to create an impression that some deal was just about to be struck with the PPP. Even individual members of ruling alliance have at times lent their names to such stories to add to their credibility. However, every time at the end of the day such rumours were simply allowed to fizzle out as if it was all a joke. It is not yet very clear what exactly is the purpose of the government in circulating such rumours or even actually making contacts with the top leadership of the PPP with the declared purpose of cutting a deal with the party.

The fact of the matter is, as of today there does not seem to any meeting point between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. The two have different and opposite agendas. Musharraf wants to bring in the army to keep it out. Benazir wants to keep it out without bringing it in. So, it seems that Pakistanis will have to wait for Grand National reconciliation perhaps until after either of the two — Benazir and Musharraf have disappeared from the political scene.