Washington, Feb. 5: Assassinated former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has revealed in her forthcoming book – “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West” – that President Pervez Musharraf’s regime never delivered on whatever it had promised to her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) between 2002 and 2007.

According to the Daily Times, the negotiations between the two went on by fits and starts, and failed every time “because I (Benazir) insisted on a road map to democracy.”

The book is scheduled for release on February 12.

The slain PPP leader says that her husband’s release in 2004 was accompanied by a promise of “a level playing field to all political parties”. She expresses disappointment that “it didn’t happen”.

Benazir also reveals that she was in New York in August 2006 when Musharraf called her for the first time.

“He asked for my support for a bill related to women’s rights. I agreed, subject to a parliamentary committee’s working out the details . . . The passage of the women’s bill gave momentum to the process of negotiations, although deep suspicions existed.”

She writes that her first face-to-face meeting with Musharraf in the United Arab Emirates was “both long and cordial”, and Musharraf’s response to her political demands was positive.

She writes that she told Musharraf to shed his uniform, ensure free, fair and transparent elections, lift ban on twice-elected prime ministers, drop charges against politicians and declare it publicly.

Benazir’s greatest regret appears to have been Musharraf’s unwillingness to act on any of his promises.

“If Musharraf had fulfilled his promises, Pakistan could have had an orderly democratic transition, closing the chapter on military rule once and for all,” she writes. (ANI)