Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has announced that she would accept General Musharraf as president after the 2007 general elections.

“I think that a good working relationship between Musharraf and me would be a necessity,” she told a reporter of The Times during a four-hour interview in Dubai published here at the weekend. She repeatedly said it was in “national interest”.

The Times has claimed that Benazir does not rule out that she might become prime minister again. “If the people vote for my party and parliament elects me as prime minister, it would be an honour for me to take up that role and General Musharraf would be there as president, so I think that a good working relationship between him and me would be a necessity for Pakistan,” she said.

“I would have the choice of either respecting the will of the people and making it a success or being short-sighted and putting my personal feelings about past events ahead of the national interest, and what I want more than anything is for Pakistan to prosper as we make a transition to democracy,” she said.

The interview unfolds many interesting aspects of Benazir’s personality and her new found love for working with General Musharraf.

“(Benazir) Bhutto is the most extraordinary woman who says the most extraordinary things, veering wildly between self-aggrandizement and a knowing, sometimes humorous, recognition of how she can come across,” the reporter writes.

The Times writes that Benazir’s response to a possible deal with Musharraf was: “I find these reports very confusing.” It is also confusing that while Benazir does not shirk from criticising Musharraf at every opportunity, she also makes it clear in this interview that she would be ready to work alongside him as long as certain conditions were met.

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