ISLAMABAD, 4 October 2007 — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said yesterday power-sharing talks had stalled and vowed to inflict a “severe blow” to the re-election plan of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf by making her party deputies quit Parliament.

“Most probably,” she said when asked if that would be the decision. “I think that the resignation of the Pakistan People’s Party MPs will be a severe blow to the legitimacy of the presidential election,” she told reporters in London.

Her threat was part of frantic last-minute maneuvering before Saturday’s presidential election by national and provincial legislators that Musharraf is expected to win, assuming his lawyers can fend off two more legal challenges to his candidacy.

The Supreme Court, which dismissed several opposition petitions last Friday, gave the government a day to reply to questions about the general’s eligibility to run.

Benazir said Musharraf’s intransigence had pushed her Pakistan People’s Party to the brink of joining other opposition groups in pulling their lawmakers from Parliament to undercut the validity of the vote.

Musharraf has promised to give up his military uniform if he wins Saturday, restoring civilian rule eight years after he seized power in a coup. His heir apparent as army chief was named Tuesday.

Musharraf yesterday said he hoped to be re-elected despite mass resignations by opposition parties. “Presidential elections would be democratic despite resignations,” Musharraf told private Geo television in a recorded interview. He said only 163 out of 1,170 MPs had resigned from federal and provincial assemblies and around 1,000 would still cast their votes.

“If there are more resignations then it may affect the credibility of (the) election,” Musharraf said.

“General elections would be held within two months after the expiry of assemblies in November,” he said.

Musharraf’s government said Tuesday it had revived talks with Benazir — a claim that her party has yet to confirm. It also indicated it was ready to drop old corruption cases against her, clearing her way to come home eight years after she left to avoid arrest on suspicions registered by another exiled former leader, Nawaz Sharif.

The government has given few details about the proposed amnesty other than that it would apply to other politicians — not only Benazir — and would cover cases up to 1999 in which people had not been convicted. Benazir, however, said the immunity plan seemed to be aimed at helping Musharraf’s own supporters.

“We don’t want to resign. We don’t want to take this step, but certainly we are being pushed into taking this step by the inability of the present regime to move toward the democratization of Pakistan,” Benazir said. A meeting of PPP members in London ended later yesterday without comment. But Benazir said it would resume today and would be followed by a news conference at 1100 GMT.

Musharraf’s government said corruption charges against Benazir relating to her two terms in power would be dropped. But Benazir said her party had checked with the presidency and found this was not the case.

“This is just a typical disinformation campaign by the present regime,” she said. “The longer the military regime continues in this fashion, the more anarchic the situation becomes,” she said. “I am afraid we are heading for a situation which could lead to street agitation.”

Benazir, who intends to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18, is demanding a constitutional amendment that would allow her to seek the prime minister’s job again.

She also wants Musharraf to cede the president’s power to dissolve Parliament and reforms to guarantee that parliamentary elections due by January are free and fair.

“He is prepared to say this will be done at some indefinite, indeterminate future time. But none of it can be done for the presidential election, and after the presidential election, well it’s another day, and we will see,” Benazir said.

Both Benazir and Musharraf are pro-US and have called for moderates to unite against extremism. Benazir said Monday she would cooperate with the American military in targeting Osama Bin Laden.

She said yesterday that she wants to build a moderate Pakistan, shift to civilian rule and tackle social and economic problems, and that Musharraf claims he wants the same things.

— With input from agencies