(AKI/DAWN) - Pakistani president Gen Pervez Musharraf was prepared to forfeit his military uniform in exchange for a political deal that would guarantee him another five years in office, sources have told the Pakistani news agency, Dawn. The president's team of emissaries, led by the chief of the country's Inter-Services Intelligence organisation, Lt Gen Ashfaq Kiani, and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto are understood to have met in London on Monday to discuss a political compromise for achieving a ‘grand national reconciliation’.
According to sources, President Musharraf has offered to take off his uniform even before the presidential elections. But in the trade-off, he wants all political parties to agree to elect him president for the next five years after the next general election. Sources told Dawn he wants the powers of the office of the president to remain untouched - at least up to the end of his new term.
The package of offers discussed at the meeting is reported to include the formation of a national government and the appointment of a chief election commissioner by consensus.