ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif said Monday that they would issue a list of demands that the government must fulfill to dissuade them from boycotting Pakistan’s elections.
In a show of unity, the opposition leaders said they agreed that the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections would not be free and fair under current conditions. Pakistan has been under emergency rule for a month. Earlier Monday, election officials rejected Sharif’s candidacy because of a prior condition related to the 1999 coup in which he was ousted from office.
Bhutto and Sharif stopped short of announcing an immediate boycott to protest U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf’s continued rule and were vague about their common demands.
“We reserve the right to boycott the elections at a later stage,” Bhutto said at a news conference with Sharif after talks at her residence in the capital — the first meeting between them since their recent return from exile. “The ball will be in the court of the regime.”
Sharif said he, like Bhutto, did not want to shun the vote, which the West hopes will produce a moderate government to keep this nuclear-armed nation stable as it battles rising Islamic militancy.
But he said, “This atmosphere doesn’t seem to lead toward free and fair elections.” Sharif said a committee with four members from both parties would draw up demands within the next few days.
“These elections will be massively rigged because Mr. Musharraf’s survival lies in rigging it,” Sharif predicted.
Opposition parties, enraged by Musharraf’s crackdown on dissent under the emergency, argue that election authorities, the judiciary and local government officials are biased in favor of the president’s supporters.
Musharraf and the United States are urging them to take part and not derail an attempt to guide Pakistan back toward democracy after eight years of military rule. Bhutto says she is reluctant to hand pro-Musharraf parties a guaranteed election victory.
Bhutto said she was “very sad” that elections officials in Sharif’s home city of Lahore rejected his nomination papers. If upheld, the decision could dash his hopes of winning a third term as prime minister.
She also said authorities must release from house arrest the judges ousted from the Supreme Court just as they were apparently poised to rule against Musharraf’s continued presidency.
However, neither she nor Sharif mentioned a key demand of Musharraf’s most vociferous critics — that the judges be restored to their posts.
Sharif said earlier Monday that he would tell an opposition alliance which he leads that “we should now be fighting these elections, we should be fighting dictatorship with more vigor and determination.”
