ISLAMABAD, July 29: President Gen Pervez Musharraf must quit his military post if he is to continue as the country’s ruler, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said on Sunday, after officials confirmed the two held secret talks on a possible power-sharing pact.

The PPP chairperson said she was interested in returning to the country and becoming its premier for a third time if the opportunity presented itself.

In an interview to a German magazine to be published on Monday, Ms Bhutto said there were ongoing talks with Gen Musharraf about her possible return to Pakistan.

She could be jailed on charges of corruption upon re-entering the country, which she said she planned to do by December.

“But I will go back regardless of whether the talks with Musharraf are successful or not,” she said, adding that she would seek protection against prosecution from Pakistani courts.

“I am doing what I must because my country is mired in a deep political crisis.” She said she would fight Gen Musharraf before the country’s highest tribunal if he tried to win a new term from the old parliament before new elections are held.

“The army must stop governing the country. The military must respect decisions of the government and be held accountable before the parliament,” Ms Bhutto said.

In several interviews on Sunday, Ms Bhutto would not confirm or deny she held talks with Gen Musharraf in a meeting that officials said took place on Friday in Abu Dhabi.

President Musharraf, who returned home overnight from a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, also stayed silent on the issue.

But the PPP leader said her party had long been in talks with the government about restoring the civilian rule. “But there are some matters on which there are two opinions and we have to look further into these issues.”

“We do not accept President Musharraf in uniform,” she told a TV channel. “Our stand is that, and I stick to my stand.”

President Musharraf had no immediate comment, his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said.

An alliance between the two could strengthen Gen Musharraf by bringing the secular, liberal opposition into his government amid concern about a rise in militancy, a move Pakistan’s western allies would welcome.

Ms Bhutto, who has previously condemned Gen Musharraf as a dictator, told Sky News: “We stand at the crossroads, and very critical choices have to be made between the forces of the past and the forces of the future. There is militancy, terrorism and violence. My government and I have had the experience of dealing with it, if we get another opportunity, I would certainly take the challenge.”She accused Gen Musharraf of adopting an ‘appeasement policy’ towards extremists that had only strengthened them.

“We must pursue these people and take them to court,” she said, adding that she had made mistakes during her time in office from 1993 to 1996 in trying to work with the Taliban to pacify the country.

The former prime minister warned of a looming Islamist revolution mounted from the country’s religious schools.

“The Red Mosque was just a warm-up for what will happen if the religious schools are not disarmed,” Ms Bhutto said.

She added that Islamist extremist leaders were plotting an overthrow of President Musharraf’s government and had converted madressahs in Pakistani cities into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals.

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said President Musharraf and Ms Bhutto “held a successful meeting” in Abu Dhabi on Friday, without elaborating. He said Friday’s meeting was the second meeting of the leaders, the first being in January.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi said that President Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto had held talks in Abu Dhabi. “I can confirm the meeting, there is no doubt about that,” he told Reuters.

Gen Musharraf is expected to seek re-election when his term expires in October, and he wants the current crop of politicians in federal and provincial assemblies — who supported him five years ago and have not faced election since — to vote again.

The opposition says the 2002 elections of those representatives were fixed and insists that lawmakers chosen in parliamentary elections due at the end of 2007 should elect the next head of state. Observers say the new crop of lawmakers may be less inclined to support Gen Musharraf.

A pact would likely require Gen Musharraf to lead changes to the Constitution to remove a ban on anyone serving as prime minister more than twice, and make sure corruption charges that have dogged Ms Bhutto for years go away. Both moves would allow Ms Bhutto, who served as prime minister once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, to become premier again.

In exchange, Ms Bhutto’s party might agree to support a presidential vote before the parliamentary elections with Gen Musharraf still in uniform, if he gave assurances he would resign from the military soon after the legislative elections.—Agencies