ISLAMABAD, 5 October 2007 — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf agreed yesterday on a national reconciliation accord that paves the way for a power-sharing deal, the government said.
The agreement gives an amnesty for politicians who served in Pakistan between 1988 and 1999, effectively clearing Benazir of the corruption charges that forced her into exile eight years ago.
The deal takes some of the pressure off staunch US ally Musharraf ahead of a presidential election tomorrow, a vote that Benazir had earlier threatened to rob of credibility by pulling her MPs from Parliament.
“They have agreed on the draft and it will be issued by the president tomorrow. Benazir Bhutto has given her assent,” Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid, a close confidant of the president, said.
Benazir has vowed to return to Pakistan by Oct. 18. It will be her second homecoming after she was driven out of the country by military dictator Zia ul-Haq in the 198Os.
“The agreement says that there will be an across-the-board indemnity for public office holders between 1988 and 1999,” a senior government official who has seen the draft said on condition of anonymity.
It also says that if Pakistan’s main graft-busting body wants to lodge a case against a politician it must first go through a special parliamentary committee “to avoid allegations of political motivations,” the official said. “The ordinance is not party or person-specific.”
Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party has for its part agreed to withdraw a legal petition filed by its vice president in the Supreme Court that seeks to have the presidential election postponed, the official said.
Officials said the amnesty agreement would not apply to another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999 and who was deported soon after flying back to Pakistan in September.
Musharraf is expected to win a second term in tomorrow’s vote by the two houses of Parliament and four provincial assemblies, but would benefit from Benazir’s support ahead of general elections due in early 2008. He has said he will quit as army chief before Nov. 15 if he is elected.
Benazir said earlier that if a definitive deal was reached, her party members would not quit Parliament, but would instead either vote for their own candidate in the election or abstain.
Musharraf today faces one more last-ditch court challenge against the legitimacy of the vote by one of his election rivals, former judge Wajihuddin Ahmad. His lawyer told the court that halting the election was in the national interest and would prevent a “chaotic situation” — echoing Benazir’s warnings that there could be civil unrest if Musharraf does not back down.
The court is expected to rule today.
Government officials warned yesterday that Musharraf had a “counterstrategy” if the court postponed the election, but did not elaborate.
