M A I N   N E W S

I’m ready to work with Bhutto: Sharif

Islamabad, November 14
“We are ready to set aside our differences with the People’s Party,” former prime minister Nawaz Sharif told Reuters on telephone from Saudi Arabia today, referring to the party of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto as Pakistani opposition parties tried to forge a united front on Wednesday against President Pervez Musharraf.

Meanwhile, the police detained cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan after he emerged from hiding to lead a protest rally of students at Punjab University here.

Imran was charged under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism Act, which includes penalties that can carry the death sentence or life imprisonment, media reports said.

He was detained by radical students at the university and subsequently handed over to the police. He was finally taken to an undisclosed location, TV channels here reported. Before he was handed over to the police, Imran, leader of the Tehreek-e Insaf, was locked up in a building on the campus for almost 90 minutes by members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), student wing of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami.

Speaking to reporters at the university gate, Imran urged the people to prepare for a campaign against President Pervez Musharraf and the emergency. The police said an FIR would be lodged against him for violating emergency regulations and participating in a rally.

In a move to work out opposition unity Benazir also contacted old rivals, including Islamist alliance leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Sharif’s party to try to unite on a “minimum agenda”, the ouster of Musharraf and formation of a neutral government to organise fair elections, an aide said.

“I’m sending this letter to leaders of different parties, to invite them to Karachi on November 21 and I’d like to work with them in sharing views with what could be a common agenda for all of us to rally around,” Bhutto said.

She said her party might boycott a parliamentary election Musharraf has promised to hold by January 9 and would discuss that with opposition colleagues next week.

Sharif and Bhutto were bitter rivals during the late 1980s and 1990s. They each served two terms as prime minister until Musharraf ousted Sharif in 1999.

Both faced corruption charges, which they denied.

Earlier, the police in Faislabad arrested Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a senior leader of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who was leading a “long march” against emergency after the former premier was put under house arrest here yesterday. — Reuters/PTI