The Pakistani opposition parties neared an agreement yesterday on joint demands of President Pervez Musharraf in return for calling off any boycott that could spoil the legitimacy of parliamentary elections next month, an official said.
The meeting between representatives of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and other smaller parties are crucial to an opposition push to challenge to Musharraf's political dominance of Pakistan.
Party leaders have threatened to boycott the vote unless their demands are met. An electoral boycott would undercut the efforts of Musharraf -- a key US ally in the war on terror -- to ease Pakistan back toward democracy after eight years of military rule.
Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, said the opposition charter of demands would "hopefully be finalized today or latest by tomorrow."
The parties are demanding the end of emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges who were sacked amid indications that they were preparing to invalidate Musharraf's election in October to a new presidential term by the outgoing parliament.
Sharif and Bhutto are longstanding political foes, but the two have been drawn together since returning from exile by the common goal of confronting Musharraf. Their move to formulate a joint set of conditions raises the stakes for government, which they accuse of planning to conduct a sham election.
Election officials have already rejected the candidacy of Nawaz Sharif and his politician brother Shahbaz on grounds of alleged involvement in criminal acts during the 1990s.
Iqbal said the issues under consideration included the restoration of an independent judiciary and the constitution, creation of a neutral caretaker government and an independent election commission.
The two sides are also considering what deadline should be given to the government to accept the demands.
"There was unanimity of views ... that the present system and actions of Musharraf's regime are taking Pakistan toward fraudulent elections," Iqbal said of the first round of talks held on Tuesday.
"The present situation demands that all democratic forces work in unity and collectively to save the country from a major catastrophe which will result after rigged elections," he said.
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
RSS