LONDON, Dec 2: In what sounded like an urgent call to his party leaders to start preparing for the next election, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif told a PML (N) delegation from Pakistan here on Saturday that the next election would be a “battle between dictatorship and democracy.”

Giving a brief account of the meeting, a statement issued here by the international secretariat of the PML (N), however, did not clarify if Mr Sharif who so far had serious reservations about participating in elections held by President Gen Musharraf had changed his mind.

The statement quoted Mr Sharif telling his party men that in the forthcoming elections the people would hold Gen Musharraf accountable for his crimes against the nation.

Referring perhaps to what is seen as military-junta type of rule in the country, the former prime minister said Pakistan had no future if 15 generals continued to hold the people hostage and took decisions about their future.

He said that in the coming days the people of Pakistan would have to make a decisive choice between the principle of rule of law and the unlawful rule that had led the country to the brink of ruin.

“The only hope for Pakistan lies in the people taking charge of their destiny through restoration of democracy,” he said, adding that had the people been in charge of their destiny in 1971 the tragedy of East Pakistan’s separation would never have occurred.

Mr Sharif said price hike had paralysed the common man and the illegal regime had no regard for the plight of the poor. He said the price of oil had been decreasing in the international market whereas the rulers had not provided relief to the people on this count.

The PML-N chief paid glowing tribute to the struggle of his party members against dictatorship and in this regard specially mentioned MPA Rana Sanaullah, who the statement said had been tortured by the military regime, and Zulfikar Balti, his personal photographer, who had maintained crucial contact with the media in the early days after the coup of Oct 12, 1999.

The meeting was attended by Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, PML-N Punjab president, PML-N parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly MPA Rana Sanaullah, Anjum Aqeel Khan, senior vice-president PML-N, Islamabad, Mian Abdul Manan, president of PML-N’s traders wing, MNA Begum Ishrat Ashraf, president of PML-N’s women’s wing, former senator Pervez Rashid, UK PML-N president Zubair Gul, Begum Najma Hameed, president of PML-N’s women’s wing, Punjab, Begum Tahira Aurangzeb, senior vice-president of women’s wing, Punjab, Punjab PML-N senior vice-president Mian Javed Latif, Javed Niaz Manj, PML-N secretary-general of the Faisalabad district, MPA Kamran Michael, Punjab PSF president Khalid Nawaz Bobby, and Jamaat-i-Islami member Saeed Khokhar.