Pakistan's Bhutto, Sharif set election demands

PAKISTAN, Former Pakistani Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto said Monday they would issue a list of demands for the Government to meet or else face a boycott of January's elections.

After meeting for the first time since both returned from exile over the past two months, the opposition leaders said a committee drawn from their respective parties would finalise the ultimatum in coming days.

"If these demands are not met then we will go ahead with a boycott of the elections," Sharif told a joint press conference with Bhutto after a three-hour meeting between the one-time rivals. "The committee will meet from tomorrow and we hope to finalise the charter of demands in the next two to three days," he added. "In the present circumstances free, fair and transparent elections seem impossible."

Bhutto and Sharif have hit out at President Pervez Musharraf for imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan on November 3. Musharraf has pledged to end the emergency on December 16. Sharif said he would not be discouraged by the fact that election authorities had rejected his nomination papers earlier on Monday.

"The rejection of my nomination papers has not shaken my determination. It is democracy versus dictatorship," he added.

Bhutto said the charter of demands was a "major confidence-building step" between her Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after days of dithering about whether to boycott the polls.

"We had a consensus during today's meeting that the election announced by the government will not be free and fair," she said.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP