Sharif, Bhutto to meet Monday

Bhutto waves to supporters after she submitted her nomination papers. AP

ISLAMABAD, Saturday (AFP) - Former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will meet early next week to discuss whether or not to boycott the upcoming election, party officials said today.

Bhutto has said that her Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) will participate in the election scheduled for January 8 under protest but Sharif has said the polls would be meaningless unless the judiciary is restored to its pre-emergency rule status.“Sharif will hold a meeting with Bhutto in Islamabad on Monday,” his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party leader, Raja Zafarul Haq told AFP.

The PPP also confirmed the two former prime ministers were in contact, and that a meeting was likely to take place next week.“They have approached us for an appointment and a meeting is expected next week,” Bhutto's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said, adding Bhutto and Sharif could meet as early as Monday or Tuesday.

The proposed meeting will be the first between the two key players in Pakistani politics since their return from exile. Musharraf, sworn in for a second term as president on Thursday, bowed to intense international pressure and said he would lift emergency rule by December 16. He said he wanted to make the elections free and fair.