ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s major opposition parties joined forces Tuesday in drawing up a list of demands for President Pervez Musharraf to meet if he wants to avoid a threatened boycott of next month’s elections.
As conditions for their participation in parliamentary elections, the parties are preparing to demand the end of emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges.
The move raises the stakes for Musharraf’s government, as part of efforts that Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, likened to a war to “save Pak istan from further destruction.” Sharif spent the day campaigning, though his candidacy for the Jan. 8 balloting was struck down.
Representatives of Sharif’s faction and ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s party — normally political foes but drawn together by a common goal of fighting Musharraf — set up a joint committee to draw up the list of demands and set a deadline for compliance. The talks are their first since they both returned from exile.
Police clashed briefly with about 250 people in a protest march in the capital, Islamabad. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
In Peshawar, a female suicide bomber, apparently trying to attack a military post, blew herself up Tuesday near a Christian school, officials said. The attack was believed to be Pakistan’s first case of a suicide attack by a woman. There were no other casualties.
Also Tuesday, Sharif’s politician brother faced possible arrest over murder charges dating to 1998.
