Opposition lining up for Pak election

Pakistani security officials watch a Defence Ministry bus, which caught fire after a suicide bomber hit in Rawalpindi yesterday. Two suicide bombings targeting Pakistani security forces killed at least 35 people yesterday, further spiking political tensions amid a raging crisis over emergency rule.Photo: AFP

Despite their protests that parliamentary elections will be a sham, Pakistan's political opposition seemed Friday to be lining up for a chance to take part with one former prime minister readying her candidates and another taking steps to return from exile.
Meanwhile, a pliant Supreme Court installed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave the military ruler further legal cover, ruling that the state of emergency he declared on Nov. 3 was legal. The court on Thursday had ruled that Musharraf could become a civilian president, clearing the way for a new five-year term.
On Saturday, suicide bombers hit a bus carrying intelligence agency employees and a checkpoint near the headquarters of the Pakistan army, killing at least 35 people.
The two attackers struck in Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital, Islamabad. A senior intelligence official, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work, said at least 35 people were killed.
Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that the court decision which was sent late Friday to the Election Commission for ratification gave Musharraf until Dec. 1 to step down as army chief and take the oath of office as a civilian president. Qayyum has said Musharraf could quit his army post as early as this weekend, though no date has been set.
The general has repeatedly pledged to give up his military position by the end of the month, in hopes of cooling domestic and foreign criticism of his crackdown, which included the jailing of thousands of opponents and a clampdown on both the judiciary and the country's media. Most opponents have been freed in recent days, and all but one of the news channels are back on the air.
But it was the political manoeuvring of two former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif that was producing the most intrigue in an ever-shifting political landscape.
Until recently, Pakistan's two main opposition parties Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, known as PML-N had been discussing a boycott of parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, saying any vote held under emergency rule lacked legitimacy.
But they have been changing their tune.