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Musharraf and Benazir : Deal done, sealed
After months of a bumpy ride due to the judicial and Lal Masjid crises, when Musharraf's plane lands back at Chaklala he will heave a sigh of relief.
The News has learnt through reliable sources that the deal has been sealed between the two and the meeting in Abu Dhabi was actually a 'kind of signing ceremony' which is conducted at the end of a long, tedious talks process.
The news of the Musharraf-Benazir meeting was tactfully leaked to the media as if negotiations had just started taking place. All details of the deal had already been thrashed out and agreed upon by the 'helpers' and facilitators and this meeting between the two leaders was just a ritual. The report that there was a 'deadlock' is "rubbish," the sources claimed.
According to the deal, Musharraf will leave the post of Chief of Army Staff by the year-end to give the countrymen a "New Year gift", a close Musharraf aide, who is privy to the deal process, said.
The uniform is not an issue for Benazir Bhutto, whose party will support Musharraf's re-election as president whilst he is still the COAS. After his re-election he will take off his uniform. According to the understanding, Musharraf will be re-elected by the sitting assemblies.
"The quid pro quo is allowing her to be a third-time prime minister by striking down the current legislation that prohibits a third term," said a top-level source.
Musharraf, however, will not be alone in the top Army brass to bow out in the next few months. At least two more four star generals will bid adieu to the Army making way for a new chief of Army staff to take over the reins.
"She has been given the sop of Musharraf's uniform," a top People's Party leader said, adding, "This way she can sell the deal to her party in a better way."
In addition to that, Benazir will also have a mutually agreed caretaker prime minister and so-called free and fair elections supervised by a neutral election commissioner.
Mark Lyall Grant, the former high commissioner of the UK to Pakistan, came to Pakistan as part of new British foreign secretary's entourage. Grant, who has been very instrumental during the last few years in making this deal possible, is in Abu Dhabi now.
It was during Grant's tenure here when a secret poll was conducted by the British High Commission. The poll threw up the figures showing Musharraf and Benazir being the two most popular leaders in Pakistan.
The outcome of the poll triggered a marathon talks process both with Benazir and Nawaz Sharif. However, Grants' efforts met a Waterloo in the beginning as Nawaz Sharif in his first meeting with Grant in London told him he would not strike a deal with Musharraf.
On the second track, talks with Benazir continued and concluded in February this year. The most difficult part in the talks came when Benazir demanded a concrete, positive step by Musharraf to show his sincerity with the deal.
To build trust between Musharraf and Benazir, a Lahore-based businessman, Iqbal Z Ahmed, played a key role. Ahmed, son of a known film director WZ Ahmed, is one of the biggest LPG quota holders in Pakistan -- a fortune that he earned primarily when Bhutto was in power.
