Zardari, Sharif set to broker power deal in Pak

TALKING TERMS: Zardari and Sharif are confronted by key differences ahead of crucial talks.

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Islamabad: The whole of Pakistan and a large part of the world have turned their focus on Islamabad as Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League chief Nawaz Sharif are scheduled to meet later on Thursday to decide on the next government.

Zardari and Sharif — once bitter rivals — are holding the crucial parleys a day after the PPP co-chairman ruled out his becoming Prime Minister or having any truck with President Pervez Musharraf.

"The next PM could be the Leader of Opposition. I do not have singular majority," Zardari told CNN-IBN on Thursday.

Nawaz Sharif also insists he is not in the race for prime ministership. "It's PPP's right to form the government and they should form it. We will assist them in the best possible way," he said.

Sources close to the Zardari camp told CNN-IBN that some key envoys of Musharraf called on Zardari ahead of the crucial meeting and told the PPP leader to distance himself from Sharif. Musharraf's aides reportedly told Zardari that America did not favour Sharif as he was too radical in his approach.

While both Zardari and Sharif are pushing for a 'national consensus government' that will also include smaller parties, some key differences remain between the two major Opposition parties.

The two leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues from who will become the PM to the reinstatement of judges sacked earlier by Musharraf.

The last issue could be contentious. Detained PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan has backed Sharif's demand for the restoring of the judges, including former Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhary.

"If we tolerate this behaviour, that the Army Chief can arrest a Chief Justice and 60 other judges, which judge can be free in the history of Pakistan after November 3, 2007," Aitzaz Ahsan asks.

Sharif and Zardari were to meet on Thursday afternoon, but the meeting was postponed till 1900 hours in the evening.

Sharif, who is already in Islamabad, is holding executive committee meeting of the party to decide whether the party should go into a coalition government, provide outside support to a PPP government or stay out of it.

The PPP, which emerged the single largest party with 87 seats, and Sharif's PML-N together have 153 seats with votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies.

Zardari says it is the intent of the PPP to form a democratic liberal government — an umbrella of reconciliation and consensus.

(With agency inputs)