Sharif Calls for Election Boycott

Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif called on his countrymen to boycott the coming elections and demanded President Pervez Musharraf resign following the shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Sharif, 57, long a political adversary of Bhutto, rushed to the hospital in Rawalpindi and sat silently by her body after she was shot dead yesterday. "Benazir Bhutto was also my sister," he said later, his eyes welling with tears.

Sharif said he and his party will boycott the January 8 elections and he called for all parties—including Bhutto's—to do the same to undermine the legitimacy of a Musharraf victory. "I demand that Musharraf quit immediately," he said. "Musharraf is the cause of all the problems. The federation of Pakistan cannot remain intact in the presence of President Musharraf." (More Benazir Bhutto stories.)