Sharif says Musharraf made a mockery of Pakistan

SUKKUR, Pakistan - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made the country an international laughing stock by purging the judiciary after he imposed emergency rule in November, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday.

Sharif, who returned from seven years in exile last month, took his campaign for January 8 elections to the southern province of Sindh, the heartland of another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, where he acknowledged he had little support.

Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in 1999, 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," Sharif told a crowd of about 3,000 at a rally in the main market area of the town of Sukkur 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.

Musharraf, citing a meddling judiciary and rising militancy, imposed emergency rule on November 3. He purged the judiciary of judges seen as hostile to his October re-election by legislators while still army chief.

Emergency rule was lifted on December 15 after Musharraf stepped down as army chief and was sworn in as a civilian president. But he has refused to reinstate the judges.

Sharif had proposed boycotting the election unless the judges were reinstated but decided his party would take part after Bhutto refused to join a boycott. Bhutto says a new parliament can decide on the judges' fate.

Pakistan's allies hope the election will bring stability to the nuclear-armed country after months of turmoil and growing militant violence.

Pakistan's main stock index ended at an all-time closing high as investors took fresh positions amid growing confidence about politics, dealers said.

"HEROES"

Sharif 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, some of whom remain under house arrest, 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."

The vote for provincial parliaments and a National Assembly from which a prime minister and a government will be drawn is a three-way race between Sharif, Bhutto and the party that ruled under Musharraf and backs him.

Analysts expect a hung parliament which would likely mean two of the three main parties having to forge an alliance.

In Sukkur, flags and posters of Bhutto's party bedecked walls around the market where Sharif 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 Sharif spoke.

"I can't vote for someone who ran away instead of facing the courts," he said, referring to Sharif's exile to Saudi Arabia in 2000, a year after he was ousted.

He was allowed to leave and escape a prison term in exchange, the government says, for a promise to stay out of politics.

Sharif's strongholds are in urban areas of Punjab, Pakistan's richest and most populous province which returns nearly half of National Assembly members.

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.