In a fresh bid to forge opposition unity, Pakistan’s two most popular leaders Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto are expected to meet on Monday to decide whether to boycott the 8th January polls, while electoral authorities were to decide on the validity of the PML-N leader’s nomination papers.
The decision will be anxiously awaited as the candidacy of his brother Shahbaz Sharif was rejected on Sunday citing pending criminal charges.
Shahbaz has decided to challenge the decision in court saying the move was politically motivated despite the party’s decision to boycott the polls.
Bhutto on Sunday said if the elections are boycotted it would strengthen Musharraf as parties backed by him would come into power.
“That’s why we are saying we will take part in elections under protest, but we will also eave the door open” for boycott, the Pakistan People’s party chief told reporters in Peshawar during her election campaign.
Bhutto claimed she was getting conflicting signals from Sharif and Islamist alliance MMA’s leaders on the issue of boycott as they had filed their nomination papers.
Asserting that all “moderate forces and democratic forces should work together”, Bhutto, however, kept the field open for a consensus with Sharif on the issue.
“I have signed the charter of democracy with Nawaz Sharif and we are committed to it,” she said.
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar had earlier said that Sharif’s PML-N contacted the party for a meeting and the two leaders would “probably meet on Monday or Tuesday”.
Sharif’s party has threatened to boycott the polls unless Musharraf reinstates deposed Supreme Court judges but the PML-N now appeared to be divided on the issue, with several senior leaders, including Shahbaz, saying the move might have to be reviewed.
Sharif addressed a gathering at Phoolnagar in Punjab province, a stronghold of his party, and attacked Musharraf, saying he had set Pakistan on the path to destruction.
He alleged Musharraf was acting on the diktats of the US, saying: “He is obeying the US with his eyes shut.”
The PML-N chief said he would not bow to pressure from the US if he came to power and would act only according to the wishes of the Pakistani people.
Sharif travelled to Phoolnagar from Lahore with a large motorcade. During their speeches to the gathering, several local PML-N leaders urged Sharif to contest the polls.
President Pervez Musharraf, who doffed his uniform and announced that emergency will be lifted on16th December, has said that he will not tolerate any attempt to destabilise the election process, including a possible boycott.
He has also asserted the polls will be held as scheduled “come hell or high water”. However, the credibility of the polls could be severely dented if Sharif and Bhutto agree on a boycott.
The Election Commission on Saturday rejected the nomination papers of Shahbaz for one parliamentary constituency and two seats of the Punjab provincial assembly.
Objections have been filed to Nawaz Sharif’s candidature on the grounds that he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a hijacking case in 2000.
Also an accountability court had sentenced him to 14 years in jail and barred him from holding public office for 21 years before he was sent into exile in 2000.
