KARACHI, 1 August - Former minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who is No. 2 in the main opposition Pakistan People's Party, has denied that a compromise has been reached between him, and the government of President Pervez Musharraf, and dismissed the reports about it as false.
He told newsmen in his hometown of Hala that he had a chance meeting with Musharraf at a social gathering last week.
"There was no discussion on politics, nothing of the sort beyond the exchange of pleasantries, which is normal courtesy," he told newsmen.
"Nothing more should be read into that meeting. We have made no agreement with the government, nor am I joining the government. There is no chance for a national caretaker administration, at least for the present," he said quite categorically asking the media to check their facts before going into print.
The PPP leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in the meantime, has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the country.
She has demanded of the government to attend to its basic responsibility of providing security to its citizens rather than wasting time, effort and resources in chasing political opponents and eliminating people's representatives from the political scene.
"It is shocking to see the country sliding into the abyss of anarchy and lawlessness as the wielders of power turn a blind eye to what is happening," she said in a statement released in Karachi yesterday.
Benazir regretted that unknown armed assailants gunned down Syed Zafar Hussain, director, Research Department in the Ministry of Defense at Karachi in a morning ambush on his car in Nazimabad on Monday. This was the fourth such murderous attack in as many days, she said in reference to murders of the PSO chief Shaukat Mirza, the former state minister for foreign affairs, Siddique Kanju, ex-MPA Aslam Joya , and Ikramulllah Gandapur candidate for the slot of district nazim in Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP.
The high-profile murders in the country during the last four days had exposed the hollowness of the government's so-called drive against illegal weapons and ban on the display of weapons, Benzir said.
