Pakistan's Supreme Court ruling to allow Nawaz Sharif to return to the country has jeopardised negotiations over a power-sharing agreement between Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf, analysts warned.

Any deal for the self-exiled leader of the Pakistan People's party "is becoming extremely problematic", said Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst. For Gen Musharraf, a deal with Ms Bhutto is "even more imperative" after the court's decision.

Many members of Ms Bhutto's party say privately that she should not be in talks with Gen Musharraf and that, rather than seeking to be co-opted into government with the military regime, she should rejoin forces with Mr Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), in attempting to overthrow it.

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Mr Sharif could return home. Mr Sharif, who was overthrown by Gen Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has vowed to oppose the army chief's bid for another term in office.

Gen Musharraf called for political reconciliation in the wake of the court decision. "There is a need for forgiving and forgetting the past because of the present political scenario and for moving ahead," he said on Thursday night, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

But senior figures in Mr Sharif's party on Friday rejected the appeal. Sadique al-Farooq, a senior leader of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party, said there was "no chance for any reconciliation" with Gen Musharraf. "It is out of question," he told a news agency. "Democracy and dictatorship cannot go together."

While calling for "free and fair elections", the Bush administration, analysts say, has in private been pushing a "staged transition" to democracy, with Gen Musharraf broadening his base by co-opting Ms Bhutto.

US Democrats such as Senator Joseph R. Biden criticise the administration for having "a Musharraf policy" but "no Pakistan policy".

Ahsan Iqbal, a senior leader of Mr Sharif's party, said it would soon decide when the former prime minister would return.


"Popular opinion has turned increasingly against a Musharraf-Bhutto arrangement, undermining the popularity of Bhutto and the PPP," said Maria Kuusisto, an analyst at Eurasia Group in London.