Pakistan opposition leaders meet in London; final presser

Описание: (9 Jul 2007)
1. Wide of conference
2. Delegate speaking at the meeting
3. Pakistan's former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif negotiating points of the final declaration with Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and host of the conference:
"We the political parties assembled here together to declare that, military dictatorship has brought Pakistan to the edge of a precipice leading to strife, chaos and the threat of disintegration."
5. Cutaway of delegates examining final declaration
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and host of the conference:
"APC (All Parties Conference) demands the immediate resignation of General Musharraf to pave the way for holding free and fair elections under a neutral caretaker government in the country."
7. Cutaway of delegates listening
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and host of the conference:
"If an attempt is made to hold rigged elections, as is likely, it further resolves that it shall prevent the rigging of the electoral process at all costs through a coordinated democratic popular movement."
9. Pan of the table applauding at the end of declaration
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and host of the conference:
"I think it is a big achievement that a consensus on quitting the parliament if Musharraf seeks re-election from the the current assemblies, the current parliament. The People's Party did not join that decision but all the other parties unanimously did."
11. Man chanting as other delegates respond
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and host of the conference:
"The next step will be to wait until Musharraf files his application for the candidation of the President. He will have to file this application with the election commissioner of Pakistan and when he does so, the opposition of the country will resign from the parliament."
13. Nawaz Sharif talking to Pakistan politician Maualana Fazal Rahman, leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or MMA
STORYLINE:
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on Sunday for the "immediate resignation" of the country's president, General Pervez Musharraf saying the military ruler had brought Pakistan to " the edge of a precipice."
The two-day All Parties Conference (APC) was hosted by Sharif and also featured opposition leaders Imran Khan, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Amin Fahim, vice-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
"APC (All Parties Conference) demands the immediate resignation of General (Pervez) Musharraf to pave the way for holding free and fair elections under a neutral caretaker government in the country," Sharif told the delegates in London.
Musharraf came to power in 1999 in a coup that ousted the democratically elected Sharif and declared himself president in 2001.
Sharif told the delegates that if an attempt was made to hold rigged elections, the consensus of the APC was to, "prevent the rigging of the electoral process at all costs through a coordinated democratic popular movement."
After the meeting, Sharif said the consensus to quit the parliament if Musharraf seeks re-election was a "big achievement."
"The People's Party did not join that decision but all the other parties unanimously did," he added.
PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister, did not attend the conference, despite being invited.

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