The battle for power in Pakistan took a fresh twist on Wednesday when the government reinvigorated a Swiss corruption case against the opposition leader Asif Zardari on the eve of post-election power sharing talks that threaten President Pervez Musharraf.

Government lawyers urged a court in Geneva to prosecute Zardari, whose Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)won the most seats in Monday’s election, on 10-year-old charges of stashing $55m in kickbacks in a Swiss bank account.
The Swiss case against Zardari stalled last year after Musharraf struck a “reconciliation” deal with Bhutto under which all corruption charges would be dropped.

But since her assassination on December 27, and this week’s election victory, all bets appear to be off.  “There has been no ruling in 10 years. Why? The answer is simple - because this is all political,” Zardari’s lawyer, Saverio Lembo, said.

Musharraf’s political survival could depend on preventing a united opposition front that, with enough votes in the new parliament, could impeach him. To do so he may try to exploit differences between Nawaz Sharif and Zardari.
Sharif wants Musharraf to go as well as reinstate senior judges who were sacked by the military leader last November.

But Zardari’s PPP has taken a softer line, keeping open the possibility of working with Musharraf and remaining ambiguous about the position of the former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who is currently under house arrest.

Addressing the media outside his Islamabad home on Wednesday night, Zardari said both issues would be solved by the next parliament.