Bhutto reworking plans, as rival heads for Pakistan
LONDON: Benazir Bhutto fell silent in London on Thursday even as Nawaz Sharif flapped his wings before taking off for his homeland to challenge General Pervez Musharraf.
"The whole picture has changed overnight because Musharraf has said he will not step down before the presidential elections," a close confident of Bhutto told DNA. "She will now have to rejig her strategy," he added.
Literally across the road from Benazir, Sharif told reporters at the Dorchester Hotel that he would return to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, shortly before the start of Ramadan. "Inshallah, it will be on the 10th of September that we will land in Islamabad and go to Lahore by road," Sharif said.
Rebuffed now by Musharraf, Bhutto went into a huddle with her advisers in an apartment overlooking the picturesque Hyde Park ahead of the crucial Pakistan People's Party (PPP) meeting in London on Friday to chart out her future course of action.
Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif is planning to take a leaf out of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's book: he is expected to drive from Islamabad to Lahore. "He will land in Islamabad. Normally it takes five hours to drive to Lahore, but Sharif's journey will probably take about 30 hours as he hopes to attract huge crowds along the way," said the aide.
A deal between Musharraf and Sharif has been ruled out with the head of the ISI, General Ashfaq Kiyani, the emissary from the general, returning to Pakistan empty handed.
Until Wednesday night it looked as if the deal between Bhutto and Musharraf was in the final stages of completion with Bhutto confident that the general would take off his uniform before announcing elections. Musharraf's refusal to do so has brought the negotiations back to square one.
