Musharraf's opponents still have no deal

Opposition parties remained deadlocked today after three days of talks aimed at producing a deal for their participation in forthcoming elections.

Former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto said they would continue talks on two remaining sticking points after announcing yesterday they had reached agreement on 15 issues in a charter of electoral demands.

“We still have to settle a couple of issues, and I’m an optimist that this will be done soon,” said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Both Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif claim President Pervez Musharraf’s government will try to rig the vote. But they have disagreed what conditions should be put in place to prevent cheating.

Mr Sharif has insisted that Supreme Court judges sacked by Mr Musharraf when he proclaimed a state of emergency a month ago be reinstated before the vote. Ms Bhutto has indicated she would prefer to reinstate them after the elections.

“We both are concerned that the elections seem to be unfair and we like to set some benchmarks to demonstrate what is fairness,” Ms Bhutto said.

She has twice been prime minister and recently returned to her homeland after nearly eight years in exile. She fled before Mr Musharraf’s military coup in 1999 that ousted then-prime minister Mr Sharif.

Ms Bhutto has said her Pakistan People’s Party intends to contest the elections, although most other opposition politicians want her to join them in a boycott unless Mr Musharraf’s government meets their demands.

Meanwhile, a court in Ms Bhutto’s hometown of Larkana accepted a petition challenging her candidacy for the elections. A member of the pro-Musharraf ruling party asked the court to disqualify her on the grounds that she was convicted of corruption charges in 2000.

Government-run electoral commissions already have rejected the candidacies of Mr Sharif and his brother, Shabhaz, for supposed involvement in criminal acts in the late 1990s. Both have the right to appeal the decision.

Mr Musharraf declared a state of emergency last month and fired most of the Supreme Court justices just before they were to rule on the validity of his October re-election by a parliament controlled by his supporters.

He then stacked the Supreme Court with loyalists, who promptly dismissed all complaints against the former general’s election.

Attorney General Malik Quayyum said today that the emergency will be lifted on December 15, a day earlier than previously announced.

But he said the dismissed judges would not be restored to their positions.

“The actions ... once taken, will not be changed,”’ he said.