Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says a list of election demands to be presented to President Pervez Musharraf is nearing completion.
In an interview Wednesday with the Voice of America's Urdu Service, Mr. Sharif said an opposition committee is still negotiating conditions for taking part in the January 8 parliamentary elections.
Members of Mr. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party are demanding the constitution and judiciary be restored to pre-emergency rule status.
Opposition members are also seeking the creation of an independent election commission to make sure the balloting is not rigged in President Musharraf's favor.
The committee is expected to finalize its list of demands in the next day or two.
Meanwhile, Pakistani lawyers took to the streets of the capital, Islamabad, Wednesday to protest the firing of top judges by President Musharraf.
The government has formally retired at least 27 senior judges. Among them are one of Mr. Musharraf's fiercest critics, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
The judges had declined to take a new oath of allegiance after Mr. Musharraf imposed the state of emergency on November 3.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, and Reuters.
