HARIPUR, Dec 4: Former primer minister Mian Nawaz Sharif says he is trying to persuade Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto to boycott the election.

Speaking to lawyers and supporters at the district courts here on Tuesday, Mr Sharif urged people to take part in the struggle to ‘save the country’ which, he said, was passing through a critical phase.

He said he had not gone to the area to seek votes to become the prime minister again, adding that he was waging struggle for the integrity of Pakistan, restoration of the Constitution and independence of the judiciary.

“Vote only for those who genuinely want to protect the foundations of the country, the Constitution and the judi-

ciary” because the integrity of the country was at stake, he said.

He said the judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) were Musharraf loyalists and he did not believe in judges who were loyal neither to Pakistan nor to its Constitution.

He accused President Pervez Musharraf of ‘murdering’ the judiciary for personal gains. In the past, he said, elected governments were dislodged and prime ministers arrested and hanged, but top judiciary was never crushed the way this regime had done.

He said that during the election in 2002 he was in Jeddah but his nomination papers had been accepted by the returning officer, while this time his papers were rejected.

He reiterated his stand of not going to the high court with an appeal against the rejection of his papers as because he did not recognise any judge who had taken oath under the PCO.

He praised the role of lawyers and journalists and asked people to join hands with them in the larger interest of the country.

About President Musharraf’s announcement that emergency rule would be lifted, Mr Sharif said he had to alternative but to do so.

He urged the president to restore the judges of who had not taken oath under the PCO.

The former premier was received by a motorcade of workers of his party at Jhari Kas on the border of the NWFP.

Later in Abbottabad, talking to journalists at the home of former chief minister Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Mr Sharif said the boycott of election and every other option would be used to put the country back on the path of democracy and ensure its integrity.

He expressed the hope that people would stand united for the restoration of the Constitution and reinstatement of judges to ensure an independent judiciary.

He said Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal general secretary Maulana Fazlur Rehman would be convinced that a boycott would bear positive results.

Mr Sharif also visited Balakot where speaking at a public meeting he alleged that millions of dollars donated for earthquake victims had been misappropriated.

He said President Musharraf had attacked the independence of the judiciary by imposing emergency rule.

He urged the people to rise for the integrity and solidarity of the country and make the poll boycott a success.