Pakistan election campaign moves up a gear
Pakistan’s election campaign intensified today with the two top political leaders travelling across the country to attack President Pervez Musharraf’s rule.
With two weeks to go the parliamentary elections are seen as a crucial step in restoring democracy after Mr Musharraf’s declaration of emergency rule and his crackdown on the judiciary, political opponents and the independent media last month.
He lifted the state of emergency after six weeks.
Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who both returned from exile for the campaign, planned rallies in their opponents’ home districts today in an effort to poach voters from each other. Both candidates, who pledged to work together against Mr Musharraf, were hoping to win enough seats to loosen the former army chief’s grip on power.
Sadiq ul-Farooq, a leader of Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party, said the president was pushing for a ruling party victory in the elections on January 8 to preserve his authority.
“Musharraf would prefer a docile prime minister to legitimise all of the actions he had taken after imposing emergency rule,” Mr ul-Farooq said.
Mr Sharif, who has been banned from running for office himself, was addressing voters on behalf of his party’s candidates today at a rally in southern Sindh province, Mrs Bhutto’s home region.
She travelled to Mr Sharif’s eastern Punjab province for a large rally.
Both have accused Mr Musharraf of rigging the vote in favour of the ruling party.
Yesterday Mrs Bhutto accused Mr Musharraf’s government of failing to crush Islamic militants, days after a suicide bombing killed 56 people during prayers in a mosque in the north-west.
Hours after she spoke, a suicide bomb attack on a military convoy killed five civilians and four soldiers in Pakistan’s troubled north-west.
Though Pakistan is a key western ally in the war on terror, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have extended their influence over parts of the north-west in the past two years, and have launched numerous suicide attacks in recent months.
