(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-08 08:50

Pakistan's opposition parties remained deadlocked on Friday after three days of talks to draft conditions they want the government to meet for their participation in upcoming elections.

Representatives of the parties of former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto said they would continue talks on two remaining sticking points, after announcing Thursday they had reached agreement on 15 issues in a charter of electoral demands.

They would not specify what the demands for their participation in parliamentary elections set for January 8 were until they are endorsed by their leaders.

"We still have to settle a couple of issues, and I'm an optimist that this will be done soon," said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Media reports on Friday said that differences remained on the two key issues: The restoration of an independent judiciary and a deadline to be set for government compliance.

Both Bhutto and Sharif claim that President Pervez Musharraf's government will try to rig the vote scheduled for January 8. But they have disagreed what conditions should be put in place to prevent cheating.

Sharif has insisted that Supreme Court judges sacked by Musharraf when he proclaimed a state of emergency a month ago be reinstated before the vote. Bhutto has indicated she would prefer to reinstate them after the elections.

"We both are concerned that the elections seem to be unfair and we like to set some benchmarks to demonstrate what is fairness," Bhutto told reporters at the airport as she was leaving for a brief visit to Dubai.

Bhutto is a two-time prime minister who recently returned to her homeland after nearly eight years in exile.

Bhutto has said her Pakistan People's Party intends to contest the parliamentary ballot, although most other opposition politicians want her to join them in boycotting the vote unless Musharraf's government fulfills their charter demands.

Meanwhile, a court in Bhutto's hometown of Larkana accepted a petition challenging her candidacy for next month's election. The petitioner asked the court to disqualify her on the grounds that she was convicted of corruption charges in 2000.

Government-run electoral commissions already have rejected the candidacies of Sharif and his brother, Shabhaz, for supposed involvement in criminal acts in the late 1990s. Both have the right to appeal the decision.

Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3 and sacked most of the Supreme Court justices, just before they were to rule on the validity of his October re-election by a parliament.

On Thursday, Sharif tried to lead hundreds of supporters, joined by some attorneys, in a march to the heavily guarded Islamabad home of deposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since the emergency declaration.

Riot police turned out en masse and blocked the route. Sharif led his followers to the blockade, defusing a potential showdown.

Musharraf has promised to lift the emergency on December 16 and has relinquished his leadership of the powerful army, which were key demands of his opponents.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/08/2007 page11)