Pakistan election campaign ends

ISLAMABAD. Campaigning has ended for Pakistan’s general elections, with Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, and Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, addressing rallies on the last day.

Friday, May 10, 2013

ISLAMABAD. Campaigning has ended for Pakistan’s general elections, with Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, and Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, addressing rallies on the last day.Saturday’s vote is being seen as a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military.Election-related violence that has killed more than 110 people continued on the eve of the vote.A deadly attack was reported in Pakistan’s northwest on Friday while search continued for the abducted son of Yusuf Raza Gilani, a former prime minister.At least three people were killed and 10 others wounded after a motorcycle bomb exploded close to a political party offices in North Waziristan’s Miranshah.Security officials said Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by Khan and right-wing religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, an ally of the outgoing government, had offices nearby.Witnesses and officials said 15 people were taken to the state-run Miranshah hospital, some of them in a serious condition.In the southwest, a low-intensity bomb planted on the roof of the office of a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate in Quetta wounded five people early on Friday, police said.