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India-Pakistan | ||||
Sharif's Party to Boycott Elections | ||||
2007-12-27 | ||||
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif announced Thursday his party was boycotting next month's elections following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. He demanded that President Pervez Musharraf resign immediately.
Sharif urged other parties to join the boycott of the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections. A collective response, including by Bhutto's own party could seriously undermine the legitimacy of the vote as Musharraf attempts to engineer a transition to democracy after eight years of military rule. "I demand that Musharraf should quit immediately," he said. "Musharraf is the cause of all the problems. The federation of Pakistan cannot remain in tact in the presence of President Musharraf." Sharif, 57, was a longtime rival of Bhutto as the two vied for power in the late 1980s and 1990s. He was ousted in the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power.
As word of Bhutto's death spread throughout a shaken and distraught Pakistan, Sharif rushed to the Rawalpindi hospital where she died and sat silently next to her body. "Benazir Bhutto was also my sister, and I will be with you to take the revenge for her death," he said afterward, his eyes at times welling up with tears. "Don't feel alone. I am with you. We will take the revenge on the rulers." Bhutto, like Sharif a two-time former prime minister, was hopeful of winning a third term. Election authorities have disqualified Sharif from contesting a seat because of court convictions. Bhutto's death will leave Sharif as the most prominent leader of a secular political party in Pakistan.
Sharif, a law graduate and the son of a leading industrialist who is considered religiously conservative, rose to prominence under Gen. Zia ul-Haq's military regime in the 1980s, becoming the chief minister of the eastern province of Punjab.
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Posted by:Delphi |