BRUSSELS: Taking a crucial decision to return to Pakistan to challenge the "president in uniform" by launching a decisive struggle against the LFO, both the former prime ministers of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are considering the option of landing soon in the historic city of Lahore in the same plane.

During her recent sojourn in Europe Benazir sounded very optimistic on the future of her struggle for the restoration of a "true democracy" in Pakistan, hoping that Europe and the US would withdraw their support for the "ruling junta" in Pakistan.

She told her European friends that her party was in consultation with the PML-N and other opposition parties at the forum of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), which would take a decision on the modalities of her return to Pakistan.

The ARD has drawn up a multi-tiered and multi-pronged strategy, ranging from no-trust motions against the speaker and the chairman of the lower and upper houses of parliament to a full blown mass movement, which would coincide with the return both former prime ministers, explicated a prominent opposition leader involved in the policy planning of ARD.

Their return together in the same plane would be a rapturous and titillating occasion for the revered Pakhtoon leader from Balochistan, PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who had been persuading both during their respective governments to work closely for mutual reconciliation aimed at obviating their differences as he believed that it was the only recipe to avert any "adventure by tin top and tin pot leadership".

The PPP and PML-N senior leaders do not rule out the possibility of Benazir and Nawaz returning to Pakistan together in the same plane. In their recent contacts with the ARD, through their respective party leaders in Pakistan, both Benazir and Nawaz have agreed to bolster the broad-based alliance of democratic forces in Pakistan struggling for "the restoration of democracy and the rule of the law".

The 50th birthday of Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto was also celebrated by the Pakistani community all over Europe on Saturday. The PPP leaders said on the occasion they were of the firm belief that the exiled chiefs of PPP and PML-N would soon return to the country.

During a structured investigation by this scribe on the possible return of both the former prime ministers, the media office of Benazir in Islamabad, besides several leaders living in Europe, confirmed that the option of the top PPP and PML-N leaders travelling together to Pakistan, in the very same plane, was under active consideration.

"There is a possibility of both the former prime ministers returning to Pakistan together in the same plane. The situation is changing very fast and there are several forward movements in the thinking of ARD, which is considering this issue as well", the head of PPP media office in Islamabad, Senator Farhatullah Babar, told this correspondent by telephone.

In response to a question, he said Benazir was well aware of the consequences of the crisis created by the LFO and the "president in uniform". "She knows that the federation of Pakistan is under great threat and she wants to return to Pakistan as soon as possible" Senator Babar said, adding, "The decision on the modalities of her (Benazir's) return will be taken by the ARD soon".

Describing the political crisis in Pakistan as crucial, the head of the PPP media office said, "Democratic political parties in Pakistan are being marginalised and the political vacuum thus created is being filled up by extremists". He said there is high level of understanding in the PPP and the PML-N on the nuances of the strategy to deal with the present political crisis as they are closely in contact at the forum of ARD.