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Anti-Musharraf parties reach agreement in Pakistan

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has reportedly okayed Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the candidate to head a coalition government comprising of parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf.

Nawabzada Nasarullah Khan, chief of the 15-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, announced in Islamabad on Tuesday that the amalgam and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious parties, had "in principle" reached an agreement on the candidates for the posts of prime minister, and speaker and deputy speaker of the national assembly.

Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians is part of the ARD.

He declined to disclose the names, but sources in the PPPP said Bhutto has finally agreed to the candidature of MMA nominee Rehman.

However, the MMA and ARD were silent about allowing Bhutto to return from self-exile and about the release of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, who is in jail for the past six years.

The news of the MMA-ARD deal has sent shock waves in the official establishment, as it heralds the polarisation of top political parties against Musharraf.

The alliance consists of the PPPP, the country's top religious parties and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

The three have already challenged Musharraf's presidency and his constitutional amendments.

PTI

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