Exiled leaders call for a return to democracy

Benazir Bhutto

PAKISTAN - Former Pakistani Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif are calling for free and fair elections that will end their exile.

Bhutto and Sharif, once bitter rivals, formed the multiparty Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy after President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999 in a bloodless coup.

"We want the restoration of democracy in Pakistan and we believe that fair, free and impartial elections must be held ... and that these elections should be open to all political parties," Bhutto told journalists in London after talks with Sharif.

Sharif said: "Both of us have agreed that elections must be held under a neutral caretaker set-up."

The pair signed a "Charter of Democracy" binding them to struggle against Musharraf's military regime and not to communicate with it.

However, Bhutto said in an interview this month there were some "back-channel" contacts with the government but that stubborn differences remained. Asked about those contacts, Bhutto said: "We have certain issues which we do not see eye-to-eye with General Musharraf ... but there are other issues such as the repeal of discriminatory legislation against women, where we do. To say we should throw the baby out with the bath water is wrong."

Both want to return to Pakistan but Musharraf has vowed to block that and has dismissed the alliance between her Pakistan Peoples Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League as irrelevant.

Most people believe that with Sharif and Bhutto outside the country, elections by the end of 2007 will return national and provincial assemblies that will vote Musharraf in again.

- REUTERS