President Pervez Musharraf will leave for Saudi Arabia tomorrow on an urgent two-day trip. The visit takes place three days after former premier Nawaz Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia with the country’s help to spend the remaining three years of the 10-year exile he had agreed for in a pact brokered by Saudi Arabia in 2000 to secure his release from jail.

The reports about Musharraf's visit triggered speculation that he may also make a stop over at Abu Dhabi for a meeting with PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto to clinch the deal that is being negotiated with her for facilitation of Musharraf's election from present assemblies.

Federal minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed who is regarded as close to the presidency said he could not confirm the Musharraf-Benazir meeting during the visit but the ongoing negotiations must reach their logical conclusion if the President is to be elected by the present assemblies. He said not much time was left for finalising the deal. If it was not done, the presidential election would be held after the general election, he added.

Rashid said the arrangement being finalised would address the concerns being expressed by PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other leaders of the party which had stalled the deal.