Rival Ex-PMs Team Up in Pakistan

Bhutto and Sharif to issue joint demands, may boycott together

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 4, 2007 6:08 AM CST

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Rival Ex-PMs Team Up in Pakistan — In this picture released by Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, left, receives her political rival former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, right, at her residence in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Dec. 3, 2007. Sharif began a last-ditch effort to persuade fellow opposition... (Associated Press)

Nawaz Sharif met with rival Benazir Bhutto yesterday for the first time since they both returned from exile and began hashing out demands for the government ahead of next month's vote. Representatives of the former PMs were to meet again today to draw up their objections and set a deadline for Musharraf to address them or face a boycott of the Jan. 8 vote, the AP reports.

The joint effort comes after a court voided Sharif's candidacy for a parliamentary seat in Lahore because of criminal convictions stemming from the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power. Sharif's brother Shahbaz, the party's de facto leader during Nawaz's exile, also has been disqualified and faces possible arrest on murder charges from the same period. (More Nawaz Sharif stories.)

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