Pakistan power-share talks stalled, Bhutto says

LONDON - Pakistan's exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said yesterday that power-sharing talks with President Pervez Musharraf had stalled but that she planned to return even without a deal.

The liberal opposition leader said at a news conference in London that talks were at a "standstill" because members of the ruling party objected to working with her Pakistan People's Party, the country's main opposition group.

"We understand that there is severe reaction within the present ruling party to any understanding with the Pakistan People's Party," she said. "Due to that reaction, no understanding has been arrived at and we are making our own plans to return to the country."

The two camps had been negotiating an agreement for Musharraf to resign as army chief, ending military rule of Pakistan amid growing pressure at home and abroad to restore democracy. Bhutto also wanted the president to give up the power to dismiss the government and parliament. However, she has failed to win a public commitment from Musharraf on those two critical points.

A total collapse of the talks would likely alarm Pakistan's Western backers, including the United States, which is hoping the next government will maintain Pakistan's fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Bhutto did not elaborate on what had stalled the talks aimed at shoring up Musharraf's reelection bid and allowing her to return to Pakistan to contest parliamentary elections scheduled for early January.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Musharraf's spokesman declined to comment. But Azim Chaudhry, a senior member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party's central executive council, blamed Bhutto for the failure of the talks, saying "she was asking too many concessions."

"Our party was not ready to allow a corrupt politician like her to return to Pakistan and take part in politics against us," he said. "She wanted that the president should not have the power to dissolve the Parliament. She wanted that we should scrap corruption cases against her, and this is what we didn't accept."

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close aide to Musharraf, maintained there was still hope for success in the talks.

In the negotiations with Musharraf's camp, Bhutto was also seeking to have corruption charges dropped against her. After serving as prime minister in the 1990s, Bhutto left Pakistan in 1999 to avoid arrest after her government collapsed amid allegations of corruption and misrule.