Bhutto files papers for Pakistan elections

KARACHI: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto filed her nomination papers on Sunday for upcoming general elections even though her party may yet boycott the January 8 vote, officials said.   

A local election commissioner in the southern port city of Karachi said she filed papers in her name for a seat reserved for women. Party sources said she would also file papers for the constituency of her family's ancestral seat in Larkana, some 300 kilometres (200 miles) north of Karachi.   

Bhutto is allowing her Pakistan People's Party candidates to lodge their nomination papers ahead of Monday's deadline for registration, but has warned they may yet be told to pull out in protest at President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. That will depend partly on what other opposition parties decide, although Bhutto has indicated she is in favour of taking part, albeit reluctantly.   

"We should not leave the field empty," she said on Sunday. Bhutto said the imminent return later Sunday of another former premier and rival, Nawaz Sharif, was likely to energise the political process. 

"With Nawaz Sharif's arrival, the political process will accelerate," she said. "We welcome his return to the country, it will contribute positively to the political scene." 

Bhutto returned to Pakistan last month after eight years of self-exile.   

Sharif was ousted by Musharraf in a coup in 1999 and banished to exile in Saudi Arabia a year later.