PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ventured into Pakistan's conservative Pashtun heartland Saturday to launch her election campaign, urging resistance against militancy in a main base of pro-Taliban insurgents.
Bhutto urged people in Peshawar city, a stronghold of religious parties, to instead rally behind her Pakistan People's Party, which she said would ensure economic development in the region.
"I ask our Pashtun brothers to come forward for peace. They have supported the Pakistan People's Party in the past and once again they must support the Pakistan People's Party," she said.
"The Pakistan People's Party will give them security, peace and employment and will bring development to their areas so their problems can be solved."
Bhutto, a two-time prime minister, was targeted in an Oct. 18 suicide attack that killed 145 people during her homecoming procession after years in exile. She is the first major political leader to launch a campaign since President Pervez Musharraf quit his army post and became a civilian leader this past week.
A coalition of other opposition parties are threatening to boycott the Jan. 8 election unless Musharraf reinstates several Supreme Court judges he fired after declaring emergency rule Nov. 3. The coalition members claim the judges Musharraf chose as replacements would allow the government to rig the ballot.
An opposition boycott would inflict a serious blow to Musharraf's effort to return Pakistan to democracy after eight years of military dictatorship. The president announced this week that the emergency would end on Dec. 16, as demanded by Washington and the opposition.
Bhutto reiterated accusations that the authorities planned to rig the election, but said her party still planned to participate.
"It was a difficult decision whether to participate in elections or not, because our sympathizers have informed us that the government plans to fix the vote," she told the cheering crowd of party activists in Peshawar.
Peshawar, 100 miles west of the capital of Islamabad, is far from Bhutto's political heartland in southern Pakistan. It is the capital of North West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan, and is a stronghold of Islamic groups who currently control the provincial government.
Bhutto's armored Mercedes was ringed by a police escort, but she did not venture beyond Peshawar. About 180 miles north of the city, Pakistan's army has been battling Islamic militants -- who have recently been expanding their operations outside the tribal areas that have been their traditional havens.
Bhutto has said she would only boycott the vote if all opposition parties do the same. She and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, were scheduled to meet in Islamabad to discuss the idea of a joint boycott.
A six-party coalition of religious parties has delayed a decision Saturday about whether to participate in the election.
In a move that may strengthen calls for a boycott, Pakistan's election commission rejected Saturday the candidacy of Sharif's brother, Shahbaz Sharif.
The commission said Shahbaz Sharif -- who heads his brother's Pakistan Muslim League party -- had defaulted on a bank loan and was allegedly involved in a 1998 murder case.
"This rejection was politically motivated, and done on the behest of the highest authority," Shahbaz said. No government spokesman was immediately available to respond to the allegation.
Washington has pushed Musharraf -- a close ally in the war on terror -- to hold free and fair elections, which would mark the end of eight years of military rule that started in 1999 when Musharraf overthrew Sharif in a bloodless coup.
Musharraf was elected for another five-year term as head of state in October by the country's outgoing parliament. On Wednesday, Musharraf -- until then a four-star general -- stepped down as military chief and retired from the army, which had served as his main power base since 1999.
Musharraf has vowed that the deposed Supreme Court judges, who were fired as they were about to issue a ruling that could have derailed his new term, will not be reinstated.
