While conjecture about the impending release of Benazir Bhutto's husband, former federal minister Asif Ali Zardari, is on the rise following the appearance of several media reports of a deal with the military regime, a Pakistani court yesterday granted permission to Asif's father Hakim Ali Zardari to travel abroad for medical treatment.

The court released Hakim's passport, which it seized earlier this year when he was granted bail in a corruption case which had put him in prison for almost one year, his lawyer Farooq Naik said.

"Hakim Ali Zardari was granted bail in a corruption case early this year, but he was not allowed to go abroad and his passport was seized. It was released today by the two-member bench of the Sindh High Court," he said.

Zardari senior is expected to depart for the United States to receive treatment for back pain, he added.

Naik denied that the passport release was part of any deal made during talks last week between the parliamentary leader of Benazir's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Asif.

"I filed a petition for his treatment abroad and the release of his passport, which were granted. There is no question of any deal," Farooq said.

Fahim has met several times with the junior Zardari in recent days to discuss PPP's dealings with Islamic parties and pro-government parties.

Security officials have said that Asif also met senior generals to discuss an offer to free him from prison and send him into exile.

Benazir's husband has been in custody since 1996 on a series of corruption charges, while Benazir has been in self-exile since 1998.

Asif added some weight to the speculation of a deal on Monday evening when he told reporters and his friends at Kot Lakhpat Jail that he would be freed "immediately" if "the government accepts my terms".

Asif was brought to the Kot Lakhpat Jail in the city on Monday for hearing in a drug case against him.

Apart from newsmen, whom he met briefly, he also met several close friends, and sources close to one of them said later "he was quite confident of freedom soon."

Asif, talking on the record, however, adopted a careful posture and avoided directly discussing the matter of his release with newsmen, saying "Anything can happen. What can I say?"
However, he told friends that he wanted to be released on "my own conditions".

If these were not met, Asif said he was "quite willing to spend more time in jail as I am well adjusted after seven years."

One of his close aides quoted him as having said, "I have told government's negotiators if I got freedom on their conditions, even my servants would not accept me because they are also hardline 'jialas'(loyalists). I can not sell the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for my own release."

Asif was taken back to Islamabad the same day. It is said that his latest conditions include the release of three other top PPP leaders. Fahim is continuing to act as mediator between Asif and the military regime as talks continue.

Fahim also had a now-famed meeting with President Pervez Musharraf at a hilltop restaurant, which he insisted was purely coincidental. But many speculated it was part of a government attempt to woo the PPP into power on condition that Benazir not return to Pakistan in the immediate future.