PAKISTAN:Benazir Bhutto's widower and the co-chair of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Asif Ali Zardari, speaking in an interview with The Irish Times, has refused to rule out the possibility of sharing power with President Pervez Musharraf, writes Mary Fitzgerald, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, in Karachi.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the US still wants to implement the powersharing deal it brokered between Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf and is hoping the PPP leadership will honour it.
The deal sought to bring the two together in the hope the partnership could bolster Musharraf's presidency and strengthen efforts to tackle Pakistan's pockets of militant extremism.
Following Bhutto's assassination on December 27th, the strategy appeared to be in tatters. There is much speculation in Pakistan as to what the PPP's next move will be.
The worst-case scenario for the Bush administration would be an alignment of the PPP with the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a coalition to try to change the constitution and oust Musharraf, Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution told the Washington Post.
But when asked about the prospects of the PPP making a deal with Mr Musharraf, following parliamentary elections on February 18th, Zardari refused to rule it out.
"We will cross that bridge when we come to it," he told The Irish Times. "We will decide when the time comes."
The PPP is expected to reap a huge sympathy vote in next month's polls following Bhutto's killing in a suicide bomb and gun attack during an election rally in Rawalpindi.
The party has bitterly criticized Musharraf since Bhutto's murder, accusing him of not doing enough to ensure her safety. Though the government has blamed a local militant leader it says is linked to al-Qaeda, many in Pakistan believe elements from within the country's security agencies may have been involved in the assassination.
The government has rejected PPP calls for a UN-led inquiry into the murder.
Instead Musharraf invited a team of British police to assist the investigation.
The president has also distanced himself from the interior ministry's initial claim that Bhutto died when the force of the blast caused her head to slam against the sunroof of her vehicle. The PPP insists she was shot dead by a gunman who was caught on film firing from close range at the former prime minister's vehicle.
Musharraf met the Scotland Yard team yesterday and said the government was committed to "unearthing the evidence, finding out the truth and bringing those responsible for this heinous crime to justice".
"He assured the investigation team of fullest co-operation by all investigation agencies," sources quoted Musharraf as saying.
Meanwhile, Bhutto's son and political heir Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has repeated calls for an external investigation into his mother's death.
"The family's and party's request is for a UN-sponsored investigation, because we do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistan government has the necessary transparency," he said after his return to Britain to resume his studies at Oxford University.
"It is our belief that had she been given adequate protection she would be alive today."