By IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan’s main opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto have threatened to boycott the Jan 8 elections if their demands to ensure free, fair and transparent polls were not met.
Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) decided late Monday after a three-and-half-an-hour meeting to give the government a charter of demands.
Constituent units of Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and All Pakistan Democratic Movement (APDM) also participated in the meeting, The News reported Tuesday.
“We have decided to present the charter of demands to the government,” the former prime ministers told the media in their first joint appearance since the two returned after several years in exile.
“If the government accepts our demands, all opposition parties will participate in the elections, otherwise they will resort to boycott.”
The rare joint announcement by Bhutto and Sharif – otherwise bitter political rivals – marked an attempt to initiate a common front against President Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif said that an eight-member committee would be constituted to complete the charter within two to three days.
The opposition did not want to boycott the elections but would be forced to if the demands were not accepted, said Sharif, whose nomination papers were rejected Monday by the Election Commission for his conviction in an alleged criminal case.
“The rejection of my nomination papers exposed the fairness of the elections,” he said.
The ARD and APDM discussed many points and agreed that the elections could not be free, fair and transparent under the present circumstances, said Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan Oct 18 after eight years of self-exile.
She said the opposition did not want postponement of the polls and rather stressed that the elections should be held on schedule Jan 8.
Bhutto said the government had accepted many of their demands such as fixing elections for Jan 8, announcing the date of lifting of emergency, and retirement of Musharraf as chief of army staff.
“However, several issues remain unresolved as the (deposed) chief justice and other justices are still under arrest, curbs on the media are still there and one of the biggest TV channels, Geo, is still not allowed to go on air in the country.”
Asked whether PPP and PML-N would unite in the post-election scenario, Bhutto said both the parties met for a joint step towards road to democracy and would continue to work for the revival of democracy.
“It was a major confidence-building measure between the two parties that will continue in future,” she said.