Opposition leaders attempt to forge unity

Islamabad: Pakistani opposition parties tried to forge a united front yesterday to end the rule of Pervez Musharraf as the military president insisted a state of emergency he imposed this month was necessary for fair elections.

"We are ready to set aside our differences with the Peoples Party," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said by telephone from Saudi Arabia, referring to the party of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto, who had been in power-sharing talks with Musharraf for months, returned home in October from 8 years of self-imposed exile, aiming to work with him on a transition to civilian rule.

Then came the crackdown. After police stifled a protest by Bhutto on Tuesday and put her under house arrest, she announced her talks with Musharraf were over, and for the first time called on him to step down as president as well as army chief.

She added that her party might boycott a parliamentary election Musharraf has promised to hold by January 9. Bhutto also contacted old rivals including Islamist alliance leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, whom police detained yesterday, and Sharif's party to urge a "coalition of interests", party officials said. "She's trying to unite all political parties on a minimum agenda to return the country to true democracy," said Latif Khosa, a senator and aide to Bhutto.

"The minimum agenda is the ouster of General Musharraf and formation of a neutral government of national consensus to organise free and fair elections," Khosa said.

Sharif and Bhutto were bitter rivals during the late 1980s and 1990s, both serving two terms as prime minister, alternating with each other until Musharraf ousted Sharif in 1999.