LAHORE, 27 November 2007 — Former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif signed up yesterday to run in a January election while a spokesman for Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he would be sworn in as a civilian president on Thursday.
“President Musharraf will take the oath as a civilian president on the 29th and he will pay farewell visits to various military headquarters on the 27th and 28th,” spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP.
Top military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said that Musharraf would officially step down as army chief tomorrow.
Both Sharif and Benazir said they might yet boycott the Jan. 8 general election, which is being organized under emergency rule that US ally Musharraf imposed on Nov. 3, largely to derail legal challenges to his bid to secure another term. Sharif flew home from Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Two-time Prime Minister Sharif said he would not be a candidate for prime minister under Musharraf, who had to reinstate the judges he purged after declaring the emergency. Sharif also said he retained the option of boycotting the elections.
“We don’t want to boycott elections, but if you push somebody to the wall, then what are the options left?” Sharif said at a news conference in Lahore.
“The boycott remains a very potent option for the opposition,” said Sharif, who was deported when he tried to come back in September.
The country’s major political parties — Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Pakistan People’s Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and Mutteheda Qaumi Movement — have decided in principle to contest elections, with reservations.
Benazir, who came home from eight years in self-imposed exile last month, filed her election papers in her family’s hometown of Larkana in the southern province of Sindh yesterday.
Western governments fear Musharraf’s emergency rule and moves to stifle democracy in Pakistan could give an advantage to militants threatening the nuclear-armed nation.
There have been more than 25 suicide attacks since militants intensified a campaign in July. The latest two killed 15 people in Rawalpindi on Saturday.
Musharraf allowed Benazir, also a two-time prime minister, to come back last month protected from old graft charges in the hope she would become a post-election ally.
Relations between Musharraf and Benazir soured almost at once when a suicide attack killed at least 139 at her homecoming parade on Oct. 19.
Benazir said her party would be taking part in the elections under protest. “We felt that if we don’t do that, then it will leave the field open for the regime,” she told Reuters by telephone from Larkana after filing her nomination papers.
She said Sharif’s return was a positive step and it would put pressure on Musharraf’s ruling party, which was co-opted from the rump of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League after he was ousted. Ruling party leaders fear members may now defect back to Sharif.
“It has already started cracking,” Benazir said of the party. She said she was ready to form an alliance with Sharif.
“We are ready to forge an alliance with all moderate political parties,” she told reporters.
“We welcome Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan. It will strengthen the democratic and political culture.”
Benazir said an alliance of moderate parties was also being pushed by the United States, for which Pakistan is a crucial ally in the fight against the Taleban and Al-Qaeda.
“In the past the United States would support dictatorships but now it is supporting democratic forces, which is a sign of encouragement for all the democracy-loving people,” she added.
Sharif filed his papers in a Lahore court but Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum told Dawn TV it was “highly doubtful” Sharif would be eligible because of two convictions after Musharraf ousted him in 1999. Nominations will be scrutinized by Dec. 3 and a final candidate list will be published on Dec. 16.
Musharraf’s camp hopes opposition parties will take part as a poll without them would lack credibility.
Investors in the Karachi stock market were encouraged by Sharif’s return, believing it reduced chances of a boycott that could sow instability. The index ended 0.33 percent higher.
Many ordinary Pakistanis, struggling with rising prices, seem disillusioned with all leaders. “The cost of living for poor people is too high,” says 56-year-old rickshaw driver Ayub Niazi.
‘Islamabad Must Do More’
The United States said yesterday that President Musharraf’s government has taken “some encouraging steps” toward returning to constitutional rule but must lift the state of emergency.
“Pakistan won’t be back on the right road until it is back on the road of constitutional democratic rule,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters asking about Musharraf’s plan to quit as army chief tomorrow.
He said that “there have been some encouraging steps as of late,” citing those “in which President Musharraf would take off the uniform before being sworn in as president.” McCormack added “those are pretty good, those are positive,” but more needed to be done.
