Pakistan's Musharraf awaits Bhutto response

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf waited on Wednesday for former premier Benazir Bhutto's response to an amnesty offer that could pave the way for a power-sharing deal days before he seeks re-election.   

As Bhutto's party prepared to meet to discuss the offer, Musharraf faced a final legal hurdle to his attempt to win another five-year term in Saturday's presidential vote.   

The Supreme Court was hearing last-minute challenges filed by his election rivals, who are seeking to block his candidacy on the grounds that he is not eligible to stand.   

But the key focus on Wednesday was on the political negotiations that may, if successful, allow Musharraf to remain as president while ushering in civilian rule eight years after he seized power in a coup.   

The government said on Tuesday it would drop a raft of corruption charges against Bhutto, thus meeting one of her key conditions for a pact ahead of her return on October 18.   

Bhutto, who fled Pakistan to avoid the allegations, which she insists are politically motivated, was to chair a meeting of top officials from her party in London later on Wednesday to discuss the offer.   

"The government is prepared for indemnity (for Bhutto) and the ball is now in the court of the opposition party," said Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, referring to Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party.   

"We expect a positive response to the offer of indemnity," he said.   

Musharraf, a key US ally, made a further move to seal the deal on Tuesday when he named a former spy chief who led the government side during months of talks with Bhutto's aides to be his successor as army chief.   

He has promised to quit the position as head of the nuclear-armed military and become a civilian leader if, as expected, he wins on Saturday's vote.   

Bhutto's party has so far given a tough response.   

Aides in London have said that if her demands were not met the party would resign from parliament, following an opposition alliance that withdrew 85 MPs on Tuesday.   

Bhutto, who was prime minister from 1988-1990 and again from 1993-1996, has also demanded that Musharraf lift a bar on people serving a third term as premier.   

Pakistan's Deputy Information Minister, Tariq Azeem, said matters relating to the amnesty, which would be confirmed by a presidential decree, are almost settled but "not yet finalised."   

Meanwhile the Supreme Court on Wednesday listened to last-minute petitions by the other candidates in the elections -- former judge Wajihuddin Ahmad and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of Bhutto's party.   

The hearing was delayed for two hours when one judge withdrew, saying that he had already given his opinion on the case when the Supreme Court threw out earlier opposition appeals last Friday.   

It later resumed with eight judges following his withdrawal.   

The court is the final port of call for the opposition as Musharraf has a majority in the national and provincial assemblies holding the presidential ballot.   

Tuesday's mass resignation of opposition MPs was unable to foil the vote, with anti-Musharraf parties saying it was mainly meant to hit the credibility of the poll.   

Bhutto's party, which is the largest in the opposition, kept its members in parliament.   

The United States has pressed for a Bhutto-Musharraf accord on the grounds that they are both liberals who would be natural allies in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.   

In a reminder of the unrest, two Pakistani soldiers were killed in a rebel attack early Wednesday in the tribal belt between North West Frontier Province and Afghanistan.