(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-01 07:14

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was gearing up on Friday for a January election as another opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, hoped to persuade her to boycott the vote.

President Pervez Musharraf stepped down on Wednesday as army chief and on Thursday, hours after taking the oath as civilian president, promised to lift emergency rule by December 16.

He also vowed that parliamentary elections would go ahead on January 8 and urged everyone, including Bhutto and Sharif, to take part on what he described as a level playing field.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, the country's biggest party, said it had made a very difficult decision to take part in the election while reserving the right to withdraw.

"We are taking part in the election under protest," said party spokeswoman Sherry Rehman.

The party wants the emergency Musharraf imposed on November 3 to fend off legal challenges to his rule lifted immediately. It also wants the Election Commission reconstituted and local-level government leaders suspended to ensure a fair vote.

Despite these reservations Bhutto, who returned in October from years in self-exile, is forging ahead with plans to contest the election. She was due to unveil her party's manifesto soon.

Sharif, meanwhile, who just ended seven years of exile, said he and some allies had decided "in principle" to boycott the vote unless judges purged after Musharraf declared emergency rule were reinstated.

Sharif, who might be barred from running because of criminal convictions he says were politically motivated, said on Thursday that he would try to persuade Bhutto to join the boycott.

A united opposition boycott would rob the vote of credibility and prolong instability in Pakistan.

But a boycott involving only Sharif and his allies, including the second biggest religious party and the small party of former cricket hero Imran Khan, would be likely merely to tarnish the image of the election.

And an opposition split would help Musharraf, analysts said.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/01/2007 page11)