On the Benazir-Murtaza meeting:
Mushahid Hussain, information secretary of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and former editor of The Muslim, spoke to Sunil Narula
On the Benazir-Murtaza meeting:
We take a cynical view of the so-called fight between them. There is an Urdu term "noora kushti", which means a fixed fight between two wrestlers. Their fight is like that. The important thing is not that they met but the timing of it. Benazir and her husband, Asif Zardari, Pakistan's ruling couple, are under tremendous pressure—from the Opposition, the Supreme Court and the other fronts that they have opened. They feel that it's time to initiate a rapprochement with Murtaza. Should a situation arise where Benazir and her husband have to flee, she would want to hand over the reins to her brother so that the political legacy of the PPP is preserved and promoted by a member of the Bhutto family. Murtaza has also lost a lot of ground. His basic premise against Benazir was that she is corrupt, her government has remnants of those who worked with Gen Zia and hanged their father. But he has not said anything about the Surrey mansion scandal involving Benazir and Zardari.
On Murtaza's denial about the patch-up: There is no credibility in his denial. The very fact that he met her at the Prime Minister's house shows that the Bhutto clan has joined hands.
Murtaza's place in Pakistan politics:He is just a regional leader, a leader of Sindh, the Bhuttos' home province. He doesn't have a substantial presence and can't threaten Benazir politically.
On whether he is a political threat to Nawaz Sharif: He has been saying consistently that he would never team up with Nawaz Sharif. Yet he has tried to meet Sharif. But it has not worked. We don't consider him a political threat.