Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to resign from his position as Army chief in a power-sharing deal with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the exiled former leader said in an interview published Wednesday.

Speaking from London, where she currently lives, Bhutto said in an interview to a UK-based newspaper that while the deal was not yet final, the “uniform issue is resolved.”

“The uniform issue is key and there has been a lot of movement on it in the recent round of talks.”

Her comments come just a day after a Pakistani cabinet minister and a ruling party MP resigned to protest Musharraf’s plan to continue as Army chief and be reelected as president-in-uniform by the national and provincial parliaments between mid-September and mid-October.

Musharraf’s opponents say his reelection in uniform is unacceptable and would contravene the constitution.

According to Bhutto, Musharraf’s side tabled a “new issue” in the talks in London, by seeking her backing for a constitutional amendment that would allow him to be reelected.

Benazir Bhutto said Musharraf’s government would have to make “an upfront gesture of reciprocity, a clear indication of political support for the Pakistan People’s Party.”

A division bench of the Supreme Court Wednesday admitted for regular hearing two petitions challenging the validity of extension given by President Musharraf to himself as Army chief beyond retirement age after 2003.

The bench presided over Justice Javed Iqbal overruled the objections raised by registrar of the court to both petitions filed by MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Tehrike Insaf chairman Imran Khan. It decided that the case be heard by a larger bench and recommended to the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to constitute it and announce the date for hearing.

Justice Iqbal observed during the arguments on the admissibility that all petitions relating to eligibility of Gen Musharraf to seek election for another term or keeping his uniform would be disposed off before the presidential election due between September 16 to October 15.

The petitioners have maintained that under the Army Regulation Act Gen Pervez Musharraf stands retired on August 10, 2003.

He cannot give himself extension in tenure. Even otherwise as president he has taken oath not to use that office for personal gains.

The four-judge Bench also admitted a petition filed by the Pakistan Lawyers Forum (PLF) and the Communist Party seeking review of a verdict given by division bench of the Supreme Court rejecting its petition that challenged the 17th Amendment, the President to Hold Another Office Act, 2004, and the Legal Framework Order (LFO), 2002. It was decided that a seven-member larger bench be constituted for regular hearing.

The Bench noted that a five-member bench had heard the petition in the past therefore the present four-member bench was not competent to hear it.

President Pervez Musharraf has said former premier Nawaz Sharif had willingly gone in exile for 10 years and cannot return to Pakistan before the expiry of that period in 2010.

He said Sharif's exile and remission in life imprisonment was allowed on a guarantee by a very high personnel of a friendly country. "That personality has made it clear to Sharif that he must honour his commitment.

Musharraf's declaration at a gathering in Pind Daden Khan, about 150 km from here, on Wednesday came just while Sharif was presiding over a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) in London to finalise the date for his return.

Earlier on Tuesday, he told a private TV channel that he was determined to go back to his country before September 10. He said he was under no pressure from any quarter to defer his departure as was being claimed by Musharraf.

He said his days were numbered and he was trying to seek external help to block his return despite the Supreme Court verdict. His attempts would fail miserably.

Reacting sharply to Musharraf's statement, PML-N secretary information Ahsan Iqbal described it as a last-gasp effort by a sinking person to seek external help to save him. He said Sharif was determined to reach Pakistan at the earliest.

Musharraf said the coming elections would be transparent and fair and would not be delayed. He said there was no truth to the rumours of emergency and martial law, adding that he believed in the sanctity of the constitution and would follow law and the constitution on the matter of uniform.

Toronto, August 29
A Sikh was found dead at his parents' home in suspicious circumstances, less than two months after his wife was killed in an alleged robbery attempt.

Paul Cheema(34) was found dead by a family member on Monday night in the basement of their home in South Surrey.

Cheema had been living at the home with his parents after the death of his wife, elementary school principal Shemina Hirji.

Hirji was murdered in July. Cheema was questioned and released without charge in the case.

A spokesman of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Dale Carr said "We're nowhere near the end of that investigation and once we have all the evidence before us and have a total look at it, we'll make either some arrests or an announcement in relation to that." Carr wouldn't confirm the death was a suicide, saying only that it was "suspicious". "An autopsy may assist, and we're hopeful that that is the case," he was quoted as saying by media here.

Cheema, a Sikh, and Hirji, an Ismaili Muslim, met two years before they married.

In 1995, Cheema was convicted of forcible confinement, uttering threats and attempted kidnapping in two separate incidents involving his former fiancee in Winnipeg. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison and also attempted suicide once.

He had been scheduled to be deported to England, where he was born but won an appeal to stay in Canada in October 1997.

Carr said Cheema's death does not mean the investigation into Hirji's murder is over — PTI

Reno (Nevada), August 29
US President George W Bush has raised the spectre of a "nuclear holocaust" in West Asia if Israel's arch-foe Iran gets atomic weapons, and vowed he would not let that happen.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran's regime, to impose economic sanctions," he told the American Legion veterans group.

"We will confront this danger before it is too late," vowed Bush, who has pressed for tougher international sanctions and said he hoped for a diplomatic solution but had repeatedly refused to rule out the use of force if Iran did not toe the US line.— AFP