ISLAMABAD - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party decided Sunday to participate in next month's parliamentary elections, and other members of Pakistan's largest opposition coalition will make their own decisions after failing to reach a consensus on the contentious issue, officials said Sunday.
Despite earlier threats to boycott, the decision appeared to clear the way for most major parties to participate in the balloting, although last-minute snags remain possible with several opposition leaders claiming the government is preparing to rig the vote.
A large boycott would undermine President Pervez Musharraf's efforts to legitimize the new presidential term he won in October in a vote by a Parliament stacked with his supporters. The U.S. has repeatedly urged all opposition parties to take part in the elections.
The All Parties Democratic Movement, comprised of 33 parties and political groups, met throughout the day in the eastern city of Lahore, seeking to put together a common front on the issue but could not agree on a joint position.
The decision to let the APDM members make their own decisions was influenced by announcements from the Pakistan People's Party of Benazir Bhutto and other groups, including the ruling party of Musharraf, that they will compete in the crucial elections.
"Since we could not reach any agreement with People's Party and they are contesting polls, we cannot leave the field open,'' said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party.
Iqbal said several parties _ including the right-wing Jamat-e-Islami party, several nationalist parties and the party of former cricket star Imran Khan _ were still pressing for a boycott.
"By going to the polls, in fact we will give legitimacy to Pervez Musharraf and his illegal acts,'' said Syed Munawar Hasan, secretary general of Jamat-e-Islami.
Despite the dissension on the issue, Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of the PML-N party, said the opposition coalition remains committed to fight what they call Musharraf's dictatorship. The former army general, who doffed his uniform last month, imposed a state of emergency Nov. 3 that is supposed to be lifted next weekend and dismissed most Supreme Court judges, replacing them with jurists more loyal to him.
"Opposition parties can take different paths but their aim is common -- rule of law and get rid of dictatorship,'' Haq said.
He said Sharif will start trying to mobilize the masses by visiting Faislabad, Karachi and other parts of the country in the coming days.
"This is the most effective way to pressure this government; to restore judges, restore the Constitution,'' Haq said.
Ongoing talks on a list of preconditions for opposition participation between Nawaz's party and Bhutto's PPP are deadlocked over the key demand that Musharraf reinstate the judges he sacked and detained.
His hand-picked replacements on the court immediately dismissed all complaints against Musharraf's re-election, allowing him to take the oath of office for another five-year term.
Sharif's party earlier had favoured a boycott unless the judges are reinstated, but Bhutto says the new Parliament should decide the issue.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed eight people by ramming his explosives-laden car into a police outpost in the scenic northern valley of Swat, where government forces have been battling to regain control of towns lost to Islamic insurgents. In addition to the bomber, the dead included two children, three civilians and three police officers.
It was the latest in a series of suicide attacks on members of the security forces in the past year.
Musharraf had cited the stepped-up militancy in northern regions like Swat in imposing the state of emergency -- a move critics said was actually designed to silence opposition forces weary of his eight-year rule.
