Pakistani power struggle heats up between exiled rivals

The power struggle that could unseat President Gen. Pervez Musharraf heated up Tuesday, as his main rivals dug in against his re-election plan and the government defended a ban on two exiled opposition leaders serving again as prime minister.\nMusharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and is a key U.S. ally, plans to ask lawmakers in September or October to give him another five-year presidential term.\nBut his future is clouded by a clamor for an end to military rule, fallout from a lost battle against the judiciary and the plans of former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to mount a dramatic political comeback.\nBhutto is trying to negotiate a deal to share power with the embattled general after year-end parliamentary elections, but Sharif has denounced Musharraf as a dictator who must be removed from the political scene.\nSharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party insisted Tuesday that it was not involved in reported talks in London with envoys sent by Musharraf.\n“They are not here for us,” spokesman Nadir Chaudhari told The Associated Press.\n“If they do contact us, we will provide a principled stance that Musharraf and democracy cannot go together, and Musharraf must announce that he is not a candidate for any office,” Chaudhari said.\nSharif’s party and Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party have scheduled crunch meetings in the next few days in London – where the two former premiers have been living – to decide when their leaders will return.\nIn the past, Musharraf vowed to prevent them from re-entering Pakistan. He blames them for the corruption and economic problems that nearly bankrupted the country in the 1990s, when Bhutto and Sharif each had two short-lived turns as prime minister.\nBut with the United States pressing for more democracy and redoubled efforts against al-Qaida and Taliban militants near the Afghan border, Musharraf recently began calling for political reconciliation and an alliance of moderates to defeat extremists.\nPrime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government had been in touch with all major political parties in order to “improve the political atmosphere.”\n“We have always said that we want national political reconciliation in the interest of Pakistan,” Aziz said on Geo television late Monday.\nHowever, he also said the government had no plan to lift the constitutional bar on prime ministers serving more than twice – a prohibition introduced by Musharraf.\n“For now, in our view, this law is right and it is in the interest of the country,” Aziz said.