Zardari meets Musharraf secretly
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=24755
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Azim M Mian
NEW YORK: Visiting President Asif Ali Zardari is said to have met former President Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf near New York. President Zardari was on a five-day official visit to the UN. In addition, he had two days stay in New York as private.
The most crucial meetings of his visit were held during his private stay. Such meetings have been kept secret as deals were made with the CIA, Pentagon and Musharraf. According to sources, Zardari was escorted out of his Barclay Intercontinental Hotel in New York City and taken to a neighbouring state, known for its natural beauty and rural quiet life. He was taken in a small plane.
Reliable sources told this correspondent that Musharraf also discussed with President Zardari the name of a person whom he wants as successor to Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The would-be successor is said to be a confidant and loyal of Musharraf and he could manipulate the situation to defuse the popular demand for Musharraf trial and help the former dictator in his re-entry into power politics.
According to sources, American patrons of President Zardari and Pervez Musharraf arranged their meeting.However, sources close to the president rejected the report on secret meeting between Zardari and Musharraf. They said President Zardari has no interest in meeting Musharraf. They said it was Zardaris strategy that forced the former dictator, Musharraf, to quit power. They said Zardari is a democratically elected president and has no love lost for the former dictator. They said the detractors of the incumbent president spread such stories to defame him. President Asif Zardari also had few other meetings with CIA and Pentagon officials during the last two days of his private stay in New York.
