ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 9 — The two main opposition parties led by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif said they would participate in Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, despite deep misgivings about whether the vote could be free and fair.
The move came as an opposition call to boycott the elections foundered Sunday.
Mr. Sharif, the former prime minister who returned from exile two weeks ago but has been barred from running himself, would marshal his party to contest elections, Ahsan Iqbal, a party spokesman said.
Mr. Sharif had called for a boycott of the election to protest the continued rule of Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, who imposed a state of emergency on Nov. 3, suspending the Constitution and dismissing the Supreme Court. But when Ms. Bhutto, also a former prime minister, made it clear that her party would run, Mr. Sharif could not afford to stay out of the race, Mr. Iqbal said.
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