Ex-PM Sharif drops plan to boycott Pakistan elections

This makes sense since Bhutto's decision not to support a boycott would leave him completely out in the cold. In fact Bhutto and Musharraf would have the field to themselves. Bhutto shows that she is still hankering for a deal with Musharraf in effect if not openly. Unlike Sharif I have not heard Bhutto clamoring for the re-instatement of the deposed and jailed justices.

Ex-PM Sharif drops plan to boycott Pakistan elections
Bhutto rejected plea for joint boycott
Last Updated: Sunday, December 9, 2007 | 11:47 PM ET
CBC News
One of the main opposition leaders in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has gone back on his plan to boycott January's elections.


Sharif had hoped that rival opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party would join an alliance seeking to isolate President Pervez Musharraf in protest against his declaration of emergency rule.

Bhutto has said a boycott would leave the field open for a takeover by Musharraf's allies.

Ahzan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, offered similar reasons Sunday for taking part in the election.

"It was considered that if we did not now contest elections, the field will be open for those parties which have supported General Musharraf and he will be able to bring about a constitutional-law amendment with two-thirds majority to indemnify his 3rd November action of dismissing the judiciary," Iqbal said.

Sharif and Bhutto, both former prime ministers, met Dec. 3 for the first time since they returned to Pakistan from years in exile. Sharif failed to enlist Bhutto in a joint boycott