(12 Nov 2007)
1. Set-up of Raja Zafarul Haq, leader of All Parties Democratic Movement opposition alliance and Chairman of exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PML (N) party
2. Cutaway of close-up of Haq's hands
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Raja Zafarul Haq:
"If we have to decide that we are going into the election it has to be a collective decision by the entire opposition. If we decide not to go for elections it has to be a collective decision of the entire opposition."
(Q: Are you planning to have meetings?)
"Yes, I think within the next week there will be meetings and we will finally decide whether to go for elections or to go for agitation."
4. Wide of Haq at desk
STORYLINE:
Pakistan's opposition called on President General Pervez Musharraf to lift a state of emergency, saying on Monday that upcoming parliamentary elections would be a sham unless citizens' rights were fully restored.
Several parties were considering a boycott.
Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party and leader of the All Parties Democratic Movement opposition alliance, said with the current political climate in Pakistan it would be very difficult to expect fair elections.
Haq told AP Television the opposition parties would meet in the next week to decide "whether to go for elections or to go for agitation."
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, prepared to launch a cross-country caravan to protest military rule.
Police ramped up security for her, saying they had received intelligence that a suicide bomber was planning to attack her in the eastern city of Lahore.
A top police official, said police had stepped up security after receiving intelligence that a suicide bomber planning to kill Bhutto was staying in a Lahore hotel.
He said police searched all the city's hotels but did not find the suspect.
Bhutto was targeted in an October 18 suicide attack on her homecoming from exile to the southern city of Karachi, killing 145 other people.
About 200 police were guarding the house where Bhutto was staying in Lahore, with snipers on surrounding rooftops, ahead of her planned 300-kilometre (185-mile) protest caravan to Islamabad.
The access road was blocked by steel barricades.
When she ventured outside into the city, dozens of police vehicles escorted her.
The rally, due to start on Tuesday, is intended to pressure Musharraf to end the emergency and give up his position as army chief.
Thousands of Bhutto's supporters are expected to join her on the journey, likely to take about three days.
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