Pakistan talks in bid to freeze out Sharif

Pakistan’s president is engaged in last-ditch talks with Benazir Bhutto, another banished former leader, about a pact that could save his troubled re-election bid – and leave Nawaz Sharif out in the cold.

Former prime minister Sharif’s brief return to Pakistan reignited a bitter feud with the country’s army ruler. He flew into Islamabad from London in defiance of president general Pervez Musharraf, the man who toppled his government in a 1999 coup and sent him into exile in Saudi Arabia.