Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Sunday filed her nomination for the January 8 general elections while her arch rival and Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Nawaz Sharif, who returned from seven years in exile, will file his
papers on Monday.
Both former premiers Bhutto and Sharif have decided to file nominations despite a call to boycott the polls by opposition grouping All Parties Democratic Movement of which the PML-N is a member.
Accompanied by slogan-shouting Pakistan People's Party workers, Bhutto filed her nomination papers on Sunday in Karachi for a parliamentary seat reserved for women.
She will file papers on Monday from two constituencies in Larkana, a traditional stronghold of her family in Sindh province, the PPP said.
Sharif, the head of the PML-N party who arrived on Sunday nearly seven years after he was forced into exile by military ruler Pervez Musharraf, will file nominations along with his wife Kulsoom and his brother Shahbaz Sharif in Lahore on Monday, the last day for submitting the nominations.
The APDM on Saturday said it would boycott parliamentary polls if President Pervez Musharraf did not end the emergency, restore fundamental rights and reinstate deposed judges of the Supreme Court within four days.
The APDM said it is also in talks with the PPP to convince Bhutto to boycott polls held in a state of emergency.
Bhutto, who travelled from Islamabad to Karachi on Sunday after meeting PPP leaders to assess the political situation, has so far been non-committal on boycotting the election.