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Pakistan's Opposition Unites

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By CARLOTTA GALL, The New York Times

Published: December 4, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the two former prime ministers who have long bitterly opposed each other, joined with an opposition alliance on Monday to denounce what they saw as an unfair environment ahead of parliamentary elections planned for January.

They threatened a mass boycott if President Pervez Musharraf does not improve conditions for an open elections campaign and fair voting procedures.

"Free and fair elections do not seem possible," said Sharif, just hours after the election commission barred him from running in the elections. The commission said his nomination papers were rejected because of a conviction for hijacking as he tried to prevent Musharraf's plane from landing in Pakistan in 1999, shortly before Sharif's government was overthrown by Musharraf, who was then the country's military leader.

The fact that the diverse opposition parties were able to unite to oppose Musharraf is unlikely to be enough to derail the election process, but it may help the opposition to do well enough in the elections to cause Musharraf difficulties afterward if their cooperation continues.

Sharif, who has been Musharraf's strongest and most vocal critic, said that his removal from the parliamentary race did not matter and would not affect the determination of the opposition to press its demands.

"It is not an issue of my own person, it is a matter of democracy versus dictatorship," he said. His brother, Shahbaz Sharif, has also been barred from running, on the grounds of financial irregularities.

The alliance of opposition parties would present its demands to Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif said. "It these are not accepted, we will move toward a boycott," he said.

Bhutto has opposed a boycott of the elections, arguing that it would only allow Musharraf to pack the Parliament with his own supporters.

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