Sharif, Benazir unite against Musharraf

FE Team | Published: November 16, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

ISLAMABAD, Nov 15 (Agencies): President Pervez Musharraf was scheduled to dissolve Pakistan's Parliament and form a caretaker government Thursday night to prepare for national elections that opposition parties and the US say will be flawed unless emergency rule is lifted.
While his two main rivals opened talks on forming an alliance against him, political unrest worsened, leaving two children dead, officials said.
Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have agreed Wednesday to join forces against President Pervez Musharraf, a top official in Sharif's party said Thursday.
He said the two opposition leaders, who have been rivals in the past, spoke by telephone Wednesday and were ready to bury their differences for a "joint struggle" to oust Musharraf, who is president as well as head of the arm
Parliamentary polls, scheduled to be held before Jan. 9, may be boycotted by detained opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan and former premier Nawaz Sharif, who is in exile.
US President George W. Bush's spokeswoman said yesterday all parties should be allowed to campaign.
Unidentified protesters opened "indiscriminate gun fire" in a violence-ridden eighborhood of Karachi, killing two boys, police officer Aslam Gujjar said.
The violence happened in the city's Chakiwara neighborhood where supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto have clashed with police since Thursday morning.
The protesters, angry at Bhutto's current house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, traded fire with police who also used tear gas to try and disperse them.
Musharraf is expected to appoint a caretaker government Thursday to oversee elections he has promised for January but which the opposition say will be a sham under emergency rule.
Another report adds, Musharraf has said that he will quit as army chief before Dec. 1, the government's top lawyer said Thursday.
"The president has said that he will give up his uniform before Dec. 1," Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum told a news conference.