Bhutto, Sharif to meet and decide on poll boycott

In a fresh bid to forge unity among Pakistan's divided opposition, former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will meet in Islamabad on Monday to decide whether to boycott the general election in January.

The chiefs of the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will meet at Bhutto's residence at 7 pm for crucial talks on an issue that has already caused sharp divisions among the opposition parties.

Bhutto has said her PPP will participate in the polls 'under protest' as it does not want to leave the field open for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam and its allies to win a majority in the next parliament and validate the actions taken by President Pervez Musharraf since he imposed the emergency.

Sharif has thrown his weight behind the All Parties Democratic Movement's call for a boycott of the polls unless Musharraf reinstates deposed Supreme Court judges by December 15, but is facing increasing pressure from his PML-N to participate in the elections.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the principal issue to be decided at Monday's meeting between the two leaders is whether or not they should boycott the polls.

Babar pointed out that only one party, former cricketer Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf, which had only one MP in the last parliament, had not filed nominations, while all other opposition parties had filed their papers.

Though the Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed had been talking of a boycott, his party has filed nominations and is having 'second thoughts' about a boycott.

The meeting between Bhutto and Sharif will strive to find common ground among the opposition, Babar said.

Babar also said other contentious issues, like the President's power to dismiss an elected government and the prime minister, could be decided by the future parliament. He said the opposition parties could work together to participate in the polls and get two-thirds majority so that they can 'rewrite the constitution' to remove such powers.