Islamabad, May 01: Ahead of the third round of talks between the Pakistan government and the opposition over his presidency and constitutional amendment rights, President Pervez Musharraf has offered to scale down his power to dismiss parliament as a compromise, but remained adamant on retaining the post of Army Chief. During the talks scheduled to begin tomorrow, the government is likely to offer a package of "certain favours" to the opposition to scale down Musharraf's powers and to also include the leader of the opposition from the senate in the controversial National Security Council. The two sides constituted an 11-member team to continue the talks until they reached an agreement over the legality of Musharraf's presidency and his right to constitutional amendments. The Opposition also wants him to quit as Chief of Army. "The president is ready to make some compromises on a few things, but not on his military uniform," local daily 'Dawn' quoted a ministerial source as saying. He also said the US wanted Musharraf to continue in both posts until the situation in Afghanistan was stabilised. The source said the US has informed Musharraf that their agenda in Afghanistan is not likely to end before 2007, and that during this period they wanted Musharraf to be at the helm so that the situation in Afghanistan gets stabilised. He said the opposition would be told that emerging global scenario did not permit Musharraf to relinquish his powers.

Bureau Report