Benazir Bhutto talks ‘stalled’

ISLAMABAD – Talks with Pakistan’s military president Pervez Musharraf have ‘totally stalled’, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said yesterday, as the Supreme Court considered a last-ditch bid to block the general’s re-election.

Musharraf, a major US ally and leader of nuclear-armed Pakistan since he took power in a 1999 coup, looks set to win re-election on Saturday in votes by the two-chamber parliament and four provincial assemblies. But the president is likely to need an alliance to shore up his support base, eroded by a failed attempt to sack the country’s top judge in March, with his ruling coalition expected to lose its majority in a general election due by mid-January.A possible ally, self-exiled Bhutto, has been in talks with army chief Musharraf but she told reporters in London the negotiations had stalled.”He’s not prepared to give a level playing-field.We want to see Pakistan move from dictatorship towards democracy,” she said.Bhutto, who has been demanding Musharraf quit the army before re-election, was due to meet officials of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to decide whether to join an opposition boycott of the vote.Nampa-ReutersBut the president is likely to need an alliance to shore up his support base, eroded by a failed attempt to sack the country’s top judge in March, with his ruling coalition expected to lose its majority in a general election due by mid-January.A possible ally, self-exiled Bhutto, has been in talks with army chief Musharraf but she told reporters in London the negotiations had stalled.”He’s not prepared to give a level playing-field.We want to see Pakistan move from dictatorship towards democracy,” she said.Bhutto, who has been demanding Musharraf quit the army before re-election, was due to meet officials of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to decide whether to join an opposition boycott of the vote.Nampa-Reuters