Click to play videoNew Delhi: Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will take part in the January general election after failing to arrange a boycott pact with Benazir Bhutto.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, Sharid said the elections should be seen not as a popularity contest, but as a referendum against President Pervez Musharraf.
"We are going to turn these elections into a referendum against Musharraf. We will go full force against Musharraf's illegal actions and ensure that the Army returns to barracks for all times to come in the future," he said.
PML-N had earlier threatened to boycott polls but now they say they have little choice because Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party have decided to participate in the January 8 polls.
Naseer Ahmed Bhutta, leader of PML-N said, “The APDM has decided that this is the option with every competent party and therefore we have decided to go for the election."
This decision came after the multi-party alliance All Parties Democratic Movement failed to arrive at a consensus on boycotting elections. Sharif though is still barred from standing for office because of a court conviction.
Sharif returned to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia on November 25, ending seven years in exile. He has called for the opposition to unite against President Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in a military coup in 1999.
Meanwhile, Bhutto, who is on a private trip to Dubai to visit her family, says the next parliament should decide whether to reinstate the deposed judges, which include former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
A boycott by the two main opposition parties and smaller allies would have deprived the vote of credibility and prolonged instability that has raised concern about the US ally and its efforts to fight growing Islamist militancy.
Musharraf has decided to lift Emergency rule and restore the suspended constitution on December 15, a day earlier than planned, Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum had said on Saturday, which leaves political parties three weeks before the general election.
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