Former Pakistan premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, bitter rivals before they found a common adversary in President Pervez Musharraf, are showing signs of returning to their old ways with both leaders taking pot-shots at each other even as they talk of a joint front against the military ruler.
Though Bhutto, who returned from eight years in exile last month, and her Pakistan People's Party welcomed Sharif's homecoming on Sunday, they have pointed out that it was facilitated by her initiatives.
Bhutto said that Sharif was able to come back to Pakistan because of the National Reconciliation Ordinance which grants politicians amnesty in graft cases.
Sharif, she said, was returning under the government's reconciliation policy, which was the result of the PPP's efforts.
"Nawaz Sharif is back under the Reconciliation Ordinance and the credit goes to PPP," she said.
PPP spokesperson Sherry Rehman, a close confidant of Bhutto, said today she did not want to cause "embarrassment" to Sharif by raising the issue of the agreement he had signed with Musharraf to go into exile for 10 years in exchange for the dropping of a prison term.
Rehman also said Sharif's convictions in various cases were hanging "over his head unless he has come back under the NRO".
Sharif has reserved most of oratory for criticism of Musharraf who deposed him in 1999. However, addressing his supporters this morning in Lahore, he took a veiled swipe at Benazir, saying his party had to defeat "those who were making deals and bowing their head before a dictator".
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