Pakistani opposition leaders to discuss elections boycott
Two key Pakistani opposition leaders prepared to meet today to discuss whether to jointly boycott crucial parliamentary elections to protest at a state of emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf.
Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, both former prime ministers who have recently returned from exile ahead of the elections scheduled for January 8, planned to hold talks in the capital Islamabad.
The opposition demands that Musharraf rescind the emergency he declared on November 3, under which he fired independent-minded Supreme Court judges, muzzled the media and detained critics.
Bhutto and Sharif have both threatened to boycott the January vote, saying it cannot be held fairly under emergency rule.
However, Bhutto’s party says it does not want to leave the electoral field uncontested for Musharraf’s loyalists.
The two leaders will discuss the emergency, Musharraf’s sacking of the judiciary and the “rewriting of the constitution,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party.
“The Peoples Party is of the view that the scene should not be left open to Pervez Musharraf’s supporters,” Babar said.
A boycott would be a serious blow to efforts to return Pakistan to democracy after eight years of military rule. Musharraf has said emergency rule will end on December 16 – as demanded by the opposition.
Sharif is expected to arrive in the capital late today from the eastern city of Lahore, his hometown and political stronghold.
Bhutto, who on Saturday kicked off her electoral campaign in the northern city of Peshawar, promised to use both economic and military means to fight pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions along Afghanistan.
Speaking at a news conference in the conservative, religious heartland, Bhutto warned that “foreign forces” – a reference to American and Nato forces operating in Afghanistan – could invade unless the government wrests the region from the militants.
While playing on fears of a violation of Pakistani sovereignty, Bhutto’s remarks also reflected her willingness to sustain unpopular military operations against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in lawless tribal areas.
Musharraf has led the fight against militants who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in 2001. They have since regrouped and expanded their military operations.
“If Pakistan has no control in the tribal areas, then tomorrow foreign forces can come there,” Bhutto said.
Bhutto also said economic development was crucial to calming the pro-Taliban insurgency in the impoverished north, where Pakistani soldiers have recently clashed with insurgents.
The government says it is already using the same strategy in the tribal regions - seen as likely hiding places of al-Qaida leaders like Osama bin Laden.
But the government’s tactics, which have swung between heavy-handed military action and failed peacemaking efforts, have alienated many tribal people.
Bhutto herself has drawn flak in Pakistan for saying she would cooperate with the US in targeting bin Laden if Pakistan cannot do it alone.
