NYT : Musharraf-Bhutto Accord Sets Stage for Vote

Musharraf-Bhutto Accord Sets Stage for Vote

By CARLOTTA GALL | October 5, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 4 — The government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf announced Thursday an accord that includes amnesty for the opposition leader and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, clearing the way for the general to run for re-election as president on Saturday and for Ms. Bhutto to return to Pakistan for parliamentary elections at the end of the year.

Pervez Musharraf called a pact with Benazir Bhutto a “package ensuring free and fair elections.”

The agreement has been approved by the cabinet but awaits General Musharraf’s signature, which is expected. It also permits negotiations on a broader power-sharing pact with Ms. Bhutto. The amnesty would cover all politicians, bankers and bureaucrats charged with corruption offenses in 1988 through 1999. It was a central demand of Ms. Bhutto, who plans to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18 to run for prime minister. She left Pakistan in 1999 for self-imposed exile in London to escape corruption charges she contends were politically motivated.

As the presidential election neared, she accused General Musharraf of stalling, and warned that her Pakistan Peoples Party would join an opposition boycott of the vote if the agreement were not signed.

But on Thursday night, Ms. Bhutto agreed to the final version of the accord, said Farooq Naik, a senator and senior lawyer from her party who had seen it.

The agreement was reached at nearly the last moment. General Musharraf, who has faced opposition in his ruling party over the measure, has only one day left until the election. The Supreme Court is hearing petitions against his eligibility to run and is expected to rule Friday.

The amnesty is part of a broader reconciliation package that includes measures to help ensure free elections and to discourage politically motivated corruption charges, all with the aim of establishing a new era of democracy, General Musharraf, said Thursday night in an interview with Dawn News, an English language television channel.

Despite his many past criticisms of Ms. Bhutto over allegations of corruption, he said, none of the cases against her had been proved, and, as the leader of a popular political party, she had a role to play in the return to democracy.

He added that the agreement was not intended just to benefit her, and that all political parties should take part in the elections.

“It will not only affect an individual, but it is a whole package ensuring free and fair elections, that is the package we are attempting,” General Musharraf said.

But the amnesty will not affect the case of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who tried to return to Pakistan last month but was immediately deported. General Musharraf ousted Mr. Sharif in a coup in 1999.

As part of the transition to democracy, the general confirmed that he would resign his military post by Nov. 15, when his current presidential term expires. “You have to, one day, get into a transition for complete democracy, with the president without uniform, and I think this is the right time,” he said.

Ms. Bhutto had demanded that General Musharraf resign from his post of chief of army staff before the election, But he has insisted on resigning only after he is sure he has won. Ms. Bhutto said subsequently that General Musharraf would resign his military post before being sworn in as president.

Even with the agreement, a number of substantial issues remain, Senator Sardar Latif Khosa, said. Ms. Bhutto had also sought removal of a ban on prime ministers serving a third term, and the repeal of a constitutional amendment that allows the president to dissolve Parliament and remove the government.

But the amendment, at least, can be repealed only by a two-thirds majority of Parliament, Mr. Naik said, and would have to wait until the new Parliament is elected.