Stalwarts gear up poll campaign

NOWSHERA—Guarded by hundreds of police, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto took her campaign to Pakistan’s restive tribal northwest as the opposition oiled its vote machinery on Wednesday to battle President Pervez Musharraf. After a vote boycott drive disintegrated, main opposition leaders Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, both returned from exile, organized rallies as a campaign clouded by worries of vote rigging and rising militant attacks geared up.
Underlining the insecurity, pro-Taliban militants killed six Pakistani soldiers in an attack on a military convoy in the northwest near the Afghan border, and 15 insurgents were killed in retaliation, the military said. More than 800 people have been killed in militant-related fighting since July, military officials say. “We should not sit as silent spectators while terrorists are killing innocent people,” Bhutto told supporters in the town of Nowshera in North West Frontier Province, where tribal militants are fighting government forces.
Several thousand people chanted “Prime Minister Bhutto” and clapped as she stood to speak from behind a bullet-proof podium. With the main opposition parties adding some credibility to a January 8 parliamentary election by agreeing to run, political leaders organized their parties before the campaign picks up pace after the publication of candidates’ lists on Sunday. Sharif held rallies in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, which returns about half the members of parliament and is his traditional stronghold of support.
“These meetings are kind of warm-up matches,” said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Sharif’s party. The election is essentially a three-way contest between the two main opposition parties and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which backs Musharraf. The election comes amid opposition fears there is too little time before the election for a free and fair vote and that the result will be biased in favor of parties loyal to Musharraf, raising the prospect of a contested result.
The Pakistani media, curbed under emergency rule imposed by Musharraf last month, said authorities were trying to restrict election coverage with a warning not to violate a ban on live broadcasts, or risk three years in jail. “It’s not only a warning but a threat to all TV channels and an attempt to silence the free media,” the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said in a statement. Any contested result would lead to the prospect of more instability in the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.
The PML, formed to give Musharraf a political base after his 1999 coup, could fare badly as his popularity has slumped this year amid his efforts to replace a Supreme Court chief seen as hostile to his government. The election is crucial for Musharraf, who has promised that this weekend he will lift emergency rule. A poor showing in the election could mean a hostile parliament that might even move to impeach Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief last month, over accusations he acted unconstitutionally in securing a new term as president.
Bhutto said she expected her Pakistan People’s Party will have to enter into a coalition to create a ruling majority. Bhutto said joining with the party of Sharif would be possible but ruled out an alliance with those controlled by Musharraf or Muslim clerics, the Washington Times reported. “No one will accept a (pro-Musharraf PML) victory,” she said. Sharif has been barred from running because of criminal convictions he says were politically motivated. He has said he has no plans for an electoral alliance with Bhutto.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed, during the meeting, presented a copy of the election manifesto to the former prime minister and discussed in detail various aspects in particular reference with economic and political spheres.—Agencies