musharraf & benazir separate meeting

[Waqar Abro]

ISLAMABAD, July 30: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Monday held separate meetings with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and, according to reliable sources, briefed them about his talks with Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto held in Abu Dhabi.

The sources told Dawn that the president also discussed with them the fast developing political situation in the country.

A presidential spokesman, however, termed reports about the Abu Dhabi meeting in local and international media as “speculation”. He said that “indirect contacts” had been going on between the presidency and political parties including the PPP, for a long time and such contacts also taken place during president’s recent visit to the UAE. The focus of these contacts, the spokesman said, was on the fight against militancy, extremism and terrorism and the holding of free and fair elections in the country.

When it was pointed out that everybody was talking about Gen. Musharraf’s meeting with Ms Bhutto, Maj-Gen (retd) Rashid Qureshi said: “I will not say anything beyond what has officially been said”.

The sources said that during the meeting with Chaudhry Shujaat, President Musharraf assured him that in the event of an understanding reached with the PPP, the importance of the PML and its leaders would remain unchanged and that they would not be abandoned as many people feared.

The presidential spokesman refuted the statements of PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif that they had refused to meet President Musharraf during his visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The sources also said that US ambassador-designate to Pakistan Ms Anne W. Patterson will present her credentials to President Musharraf on Tuesday and discuss with him a number of issues, including the situation in North and South Waziristan and the forthcoming elections in Pakistan.