Defending his U-turn on participating in the upcoming polls, former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday said that a “partial boycott” would have been “disastrous” for the opposition even as he ruled out any electoral alliance with his rival, Benazir Bhutto.

“We have been (saying) very strongly from the very first day that if any boycott is to take place, it must be unanimous. Any partial boycott will be disastrous for the opposition,” Sharif said a day after his party decided to take the plunge into the electoral scene and contest the January 8 parliamentary polls.

The PML-N, which had been pushing for a boycott, changed its stance after it failed to convince Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to abstain from the election.

“After having failed to convince them (Bhutto and Rehman) for a boycott, we came back to the All Parties Democratic Movement and made this very strong recommendation that we must participate in the elections to block Musharraf's unconstitutional actions,” Sharif told Dawn News channel.

Asked if he would form an electoral alliance with the PPP, Sharif ruled out any pre-poll alliance with any party, including the PPP. “We are not going into any electoral alliance with any party.

We will be contesting the elections ourselves and we have no intention of forging any alliance with any other party,” he said, adding that the PML-N could have seat adjustment with “certain parties”.

TALKS WITH BHUTTO

Pakistan Attorney General Malik Qayyum has travelled to Dubai where he is expected to hold talks with former premier Benazir Bhutto on contentious issues raised by her in connection with holding free and fair polls.

Qayyum, a close confidant of President Pervez Musharraf, flew to Dubai late Sunday night, two days after Bhutto travelled to the United Arab Emirates to meet her family there. The former judge may meet Bhutto, who has voiced fears that the January 8 elections may be rigged, to “thrash out complaints being aired by the Pakistan People’s Party leader with regard to the polls”, The News quoted sources as saying on Monday.

Qayyum held “important discussions” with Musharraf and Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, the senior advisor to the Prime Minister on law, before his departure.

Qayyum is also expected to hold meetings with Pakistani jurists and “noted personalities from the West” in Dubai. The attorney general is expected to return to Pakistan by Tuesday evening. Bhutto’s PPP had earlier said that the former premier has ended all contacts with the government through “backdoor channels” until the elections.

“At present, no backdoor channel is active and it is our decision not to engage in such an exercise,” said PPP leader Rehman Malik, involved in the talks with the government that facilitated her return in October from eight years in self-exile.