President Pervez Musharraf made the country an international laughing stock by purging the judiciary after he imposed emergency rule in November, Nawaz Sharif said here on Monday. Nawaz took his campaign for January 8 elections to Sindh, the heartland of Benazir Bhutto, where he acknowledged he had little support.
He has been campaigning for the parliamentary elections despite a ban on running because of past criminal convictions he says were politically motivated. "Musharraf has made us a mockery by sacking the judiciary," Nawaz told a crowd of about 3,000 at a rally in the main market area of this town on the Indus river.
"We are a laughing stock all over the world, even in India. We have to liberate our country of dictators," he said. Nawaz had proposed boycotting the election unless the judges were reinstated, but changed the decision so that his party could take part after Benazir refused to join 'boycott'. She at present holds a different view and says that a new parliament can decide on the judges' fate.
'HEROES'Nawaz would seem an unlikely champion of the judiciary. He had a major dispute with the Supreme Court during his second term as prime minister in the 1990s, which led to the removal of the then chief justice. But he has made a demand for the restoration of the judges a main theme of his party's campaign. "These judges are our heroes," he said. "It is our commitment that we will restore these judges, at any cost."
In Sukkur, flags and posters of Benazir's party bedecked walls around the market where Nawaz spoke. Some traders didn't even bother closing their shops. "Why should I close my shop and go to his rally? He's not my leader; I didn't invite him," said Muhammad Abid whose shop is a couple of hundred yards away from the stage where Nawaz spoke.
"I can't vote for someone who ran away, instead of facing the courts," he said, referring to Nawaz's exile to Saudi Arabia in 2000. He did not appear hopeful of winning seats in Sindh. "We've never won a National Assembly seat from Sukkur, but I still love the people of Sukkur and Sindh ... they've always supported the democratic forces," he told the crowd.