Islamabad: Despite signing a pact with deposed premier Nawaz Sharif to oust military from politics, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto continues to be in touch with President Pervez Musharraf to work out a quid pro quo deal to return from her self exile, a Pakistani minister has claimed.
“Bhutto is maintaining direct contact with Musharraf despite signing a Charter of Democracy with Sharif in the middle of this month in London,” Pakistan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi said.
He claimed that she has talked directly to Musharraf on the telephone 12 times to work out a quid pro quo deal to return from her self exile.
"The President told me this himself," Niazi, a former Bhutto loyalist-turned Musharraf supporter said in an address to a seminar organised by the Labour Forum in Islamabad on Saturday.
Bhutto's spokesman Farhatullah Babar, however, rubbished Niazi's claim saying that "if Niazi claims that President Musharraf has told him this, then President Musharraf is also telling a big lie.
Sherry Rehman, the Information Secretary of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), also alleged that Niazi's statement was an attempt by the ruling party to spread disinformation since it was worried about the new partnership between the PPP and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N.
However, when asked about Bhutto's contacts with the government, she said "anything is possible," but the party would not compromise on its principles.
Both Bhutto and Musharraf in the past acknowledged maintaining contacts to work out an understanding but a deal failed to emerge.
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