Pakistan opposition divided
Pakistani opposition leaders were today divided on whether to contest parliamentary elections under President Pervez Musharraf, a day after he bowed to international pressure by saying he would end emergency rule ahead of the ballot.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said her opposition party would participate in the January 8 elections “under protest.”
“We’re worried about the elections, we have our reservations, but we’re going in under protest,” Bhutto said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
“We hope as we participate we can try and improve the situation,” she said after meeting a US congressional delegation.
A close aide to Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister who heads a 33-member opposition alliance, said today his group will try to win Bhutto’s support to boycott the vote unless Musharraf reinstates the Supreme Court chief justice and other judges he sacked after declaring the emergency on November 3.
“Nawaz Sharif will soon meet with Benazir Bhutto to persuade her that the entire opposition should boycott the elections, if Musharraf does not reinstates the judges,” said Zafar Ali Shah, a senior leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party.
Musharraf had ruled Pakistan as a military dictator since 1999 when he overthrew Sharif in a coup, but he stepped down from his role as military commander on Wednesday and has pledged to reinstate democracy, after coming under strong pressure to do so from US President George Bush.
Yesterday he said he would lift emergency rule on December 16.
An electoral boycott would represent a serious blow to Musharraf’s stated intentions to restore democracy.
A US senator who met with Bhutto at her house in Islamabad said his congressional delegation was “encouraged” that Bhutto would not boycott.
“We know how important is that her party participate, we hope all parties participate, otherwise it will be very difficult to put together ... a government that really serves the people,” said Sen Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican.
Sharif, reflecting widespread anger at Musharraf and political uncertainty that have undercut the president’s domestic and international support, has continued to urge a boycott as a way to demolish the election’s legitimacy.
He says Musharraf must reinstate the deposed chief justice and other judges, who were purged for not backing him.
Musharraf yesterday urged opposition parties to participate in the parliamentary ballot and help strengthen democracy, after he was sworn in for a new five-year term as president.
“This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy,” he told officials, diplomats and generals at his oath-taking ceremony in the presidential palace.
“Anyone who is talking of any boycotts should hear this out: Come hell or high water, elections will be held on January 8. Nobody derails it.”
Washington and London welcomed that announcement.
“We hope that he follows through on that,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain also looked forward to the lifting of the emergency and other restrictions – one major television channel and several radio stations remain blocked and several judges and leading lawyers are still in custody.
Musharraf, 64, imposed emergency rule on November 3 in what he argued was a vital intervention to save Pakistan from political chaos and shore up its fight against rising Islamic militancy.
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