ISLAMABAD, 17 December 2007 — Pakistani political parties stepped up poll campaign yesterday, a day after President Pervez Musharraf lifted emergency rule and restored the constitution.

Major parties, however, were skeptical elections would be free and fair.

Pakistan People’s Party chief and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto vowed yesterday to foil attempts to rig elections with the help of the people.

Speaking at a press conference in Quetta, Benazir said neither the Election Commission was independent nor the government was neutral in holding the elections. She accused the government of planning to rig the polls, saying, “intelligence agencies are harassing PPP candidates.”

The Election Commission released the final list of candidates for the Jan. 8 vote late yesterday. More than 13,000 candidates have filed nomination papers.

Benazir and another former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were criss-crossing the country yesterday, drumming up support for their parties. They are taking part in the election after failing to agree on a joint boycott.

President Musharraf pledged on Saturday the vote would be “absolutely fair” and invited international observers to attend the election.

Musharraf in an interview indicated that although the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden was not known he could be in Bajaur, the tribal region bordering Kunar province in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani president said he would ensure clean balloting in his country next month. “We are going to have fair and transparent elections,” he said, although he refused to say whether he would endorse a constitutional amendment to allow Sharif and Benazir to serve a third term.

About the reinstatement of judges, Musharraf said, “Why should they be restored? New judges are there. They will never be restored.” In addition to lifting the emergency, however, the president has also decreed that measures imposed during emergency rule could not be challenged in the courts.

“He is behaving like a man who commits a crime and then exonerates himself,” said Raja Zafarul Haq, a senior official in Sharif’s PML-N party referring to Musharraf.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday he had used a phone call with the president to call for a “level playing field” at the polls. “The international community supports his wish — and that of the people of Pakistan — to hold free and fair elections,” Brown said.

Meanwhile, security forces yesterday recovered the beheaded body of a soldier from the tribal Bajaur district, local official Fazle Rabbi said.

A letter recovered from his pocket said the paramilitary soldier had been killed by local Taleban. It gave no reason, Rabbi said.

In another incident, Balochistan Chief Secretary K. B. Rind’s son Shahzad Rind was allegedly shot dead in Karachi.

Police officer Asif Ijaz Shaikh told journalists Shahzad’s body was found in his car in Clifton. He had bullet wound on his head. The deceased held a pistol in his hand that gave the impression he had committed suicide. Police are investigating.