Pak opposition threatens to boycott election
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 12 (Agencies): Two of Pakistan's biggest opposition parties said today they would likely boycott parliamentary elections due to be held in early January if the president, Pervez Musharraf, persists in holding the vote while still maintaining emergency rule.
However, the leader of the biggest opposition party, Benazir Bhutto, has not yet said whether she would pull her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, out of the election.
On Sunday, Benazir called the announcement by Musharraf that elections would go ahead in January a positive though insufficient step.
Today, she assumed a slightly tougher tone, suggesting her negotiations with Musharraf had come to an end.
Benazir, who last month survived Pakistan's worst terror attack, will press ahead with a rally as opposition groups said more than 15,000 supporters have been arrested under emergency rule.
Benazir, detained in Islamabad on November 9 before a protest, may be arrested again to prevent her leading a march from Lahore back to the capital, Farhatullah Babar, Bhutto's spokesman said. Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said rallies are illegal.
The chairman of one of the country's biggest parties, the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Raza Zafarul Haz, said that for free and fair elections to go ahead, emergency rule would have to be lifted and judges who were sacked following the imposition of emergency rule must be reinstated.
"Under the current circumstances, it is very difficult to expect there will be fair elections in the country," Haz said. His party would make its final decision in the coming week, he said.
The secretary general of Pakistan's most popular Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islaami, Liaqat Baloch, said the party was considering withholding its candidates if the emergency was still in place in January.
Despite Bhutto's tougher comments today, analysts said they believed she had not completely moved away from her original plan, devised with the backing of the Bush Administration, to seek some kind of conciliation with Musharraf in a potential power-sharing deal.
The prospects for such a deal, however, looked increasingly difficult after Musharraf announced Sunday that the emergency rule he imposed more than a week ago would prevail beyond the election.
However, the leader of the biggest opposition party, Benazir Bhutto, has not yet said whether she would pull her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, out of the election.
On Sunday, Benazir called the announcement by Musharraf that elections would go ahead in January a positive though insufficient step.
Today, she assumed a slightly tougher tone, suggesting her negotiations with Musharraf had come to an end.
Benazir, who last month survived Pakistan's worst terror attack, will press ahead with a rally as opposition groups said more than 15,000 supporters have been arrested under emergency rule.
Benazir, detained in Islamabad on November 9 before a protest, may be arrested again to prevent her leading a march from Lahore back to the capital, Farhatullah Babar, Bhutto's spokesman said. Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem said rallies are illegal.
The chairman of one of the country's biggest parties, the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Raza Zafarul Haz, said that for free and fair elections to go ahead, emergency rule would have to be lifted and judges who were sacked following the imposition of emergency rule must be reinstated.
"Under the current circumstances, it is very difficult to expect there will be fair elections in the country," Haz said. His party would make its final decision in the coming week, he said.
The secretary general of Pakistan's most popular Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islaami, Liaqat Baloch, said the party was considering withholding its candidates if the emergency was still in place in January.
Despite Bhutto's tougher comments today, analysts said they believed she had not completely moved away from her original plan, devised with the backing of the Bush Administration, to seek some kind of conciliation with Musharraf in a potential power-sharing deal.
The prospects for such a deal, however, looked increasingly difficult after Musharraf announced Sunday that the emergency rule he imposed more than a week ago would prevail beyond the election.