ISLAMABAD, 24 December 2007 — Opponents of President Pervez Musharraf hit the campaign trail yesterday with just two weeks to go before pivotal elections for Parliament.
Main opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif held rallies ahead of the Jan. 8 vote, which both have said Musharraf’s allies will try to rig — and which militants have vowed to disrupt.
Benazir said yesterday some religious schools were turning children into killers. Speaking to about 25,000 supporters near her ancestral home in the southern town of Larkana, she also renewed accusations the government had done nothing to stop militant violence.
“They always try to stop democratic forces but don’t make any effort to check extremists, terrorists and fanatics,” she told a rally, two days after a suicide bomber killed nearly 50 worshippers in a mosque.
Benazir said Musharraf had spoken of the need to reform religious schools, or madrasas, but had done nothing. She said she respected genuine religious schools.
“Then there are the political madrasas, the political madrasas that teach their pupils how to make bombs, how to use rifles and how to kill women, children and the elderly.” “It’s they who tell children to carry out bombing on Eid Al-Adha,” she said, referring to the attack on Friday in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
Police said they suspected militants based in semi-autonomous tribal lands on the Afghan border were behind the attack, the latest in a wave of suicide blasts in Pakistan. Sharif, who Musharraf ousted in 1999, was allowed back from seven years of exile last month and has been campaigning for the election despite a ban on running because of past criminal convictions he says were politically motivated.
He was in the southern city of Karachi yesterday.
Addressing supporters from his Pakistan Muslim League-N party at the mausoleum of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, Nawaz told supporters a vote for his party would help oust Musharraf, who recently declared emergency rule for six weeks. “We will ensure the rule of law,” Sharif said. “I promise that I will strive to put Pakistan back on the path of democracy, because we need the rule of law, not a dictator.” At Benazir’s rally, private security guards used metal detectors to check people entering the stadium.
Benazir survived a suicide attack in October when a bomber killed nearly 150 people at a procession in Karachi to welcome her home from eight years of self-imposed exile. “Extremism is getting strong in our tribal areas and lawlessness is spreading throughout the country,” Benazir said. Pakistan’s allies hope the election will bring stability to the nuclear-armed country after months of turmoil. Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November before stepping down as army chief. He lifted emergency rule on Dec. 15.
Pakistan is seen as a vital ally in the US campaign against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban in neighboring Afghanistan. But inside Pakistan, many Pakistanis are more concerned about inflation and unemployment ahead of the Jan. 8 election.
Benazir was dogged by accusations of corruption when she served two terms as prime minister in the late 1980s and 1990s but the daughter of Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, commands a devoted following.
“I was a young student when Bhutto was alive. He was a great leader and I’ve been a follower since,” said bank worker Farzand Ali. “Who says there was corruption? Prove it. Whatever you say we’re followers.” The vote for provincial Parliaments and a National Assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn is a three-way race between Benazir, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the party that ruled under Musharraf.
Analysts expect a hung Parliament, which would likely mean two of the three main parties having to forge an alliance.
Opposition leaders accused Musharraf of trying to rig the vote.
Referring to the recent survey, Benazir called for mass protests if pro-Musharraf parties win the election. “The government has created a rogue force. They have hired goons who will be deployed at polling stations in police uniform, which will be a source of vote-rigging,” Benazir said.
