Sharif-Bhutto friendship worries Pak

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Next poll off limits for Bhutto & Sharif

Bhutto and Sharif cannot contest next year's polls as rules bar them from running for the PM's post more than twice.

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• Next poll off limits for Bhutto & Sharif
• Bhutto, Zardari issued arrest warrants
• Bhutto, Sharif to face court cases on return

Keywords: Musharraf, Pakistan

Islamabad: Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif's vow for democracy has sparked off widespread interest in Pakistan and their handshake in London has raised many eyebrows back home.

The news made the headlines in every paper in Pakistan. The common pledge by once bitter rivals to work for democrcay evoked mixed reactions.

Says Khalid Hussain, a Pakistan-based lawyer, "This 'Charter of Democracy' signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, will benefit people. A civilian government will come in the country."

However, the reactions from the powers that be were not positive.

Pakistan is scheduled to hold general elections next year and though both Bhutto and Sharif say they want to go back to Pakistan, Musharraf is expected to sail through 2007 polls and has vowed to block their return.

And he is not alone in his quest to stop the two stepping back on Pakistani soil. The General has many supporters - most of them common people.

Says a taxi-driver, Rafique, "Whatever the Musharraf government is doing, its doing right thing for the system is running in right direction."

Sharif, ousted by Musharraf, and exiled to Saudi Arabia, is now in London, while Bhutto has graft charges against her. She faces arrest if she returns home.