Ignoring calls to boycott general elections, former Pakistan prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have hit the campaign trail with a vengeance, pledging to overcome obstacles that come their way.
“As it became clear who will contest and who will stay away from the Jan 8 elections for the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies, the country’s most popular leaders chose different provinces to launch their campaigns with big rallies, leaving political casualties among both friends and foes,” the Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The campaign had been a dull affair until Sharif told the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) on Sunday that his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will not leave the field clear for the PML or for Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Sharif then lost no time and plunged into the campaign the very next day, addressing a rally in Faisalabad. The six-party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) religious alliance also virtually broke up because the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), whose chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed is also the alliance president, stuck to the APDM boycott call while its main component, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, refused to stay away from the polls.
“Bhutto returned on Tuesday from a brief visit to Dubai, praising the PML-N shift to her thinking and immediately went to Mardan in the NWFP to address her first election rally there,” Dawn noted.
