Pakistan's Sharif, Bhutto meet next week: party officials

December 01, 2007 (AFP) Former Pakistani prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif will meet early next week to discuss whether or not to boycott the upcoming election, party officials said Saturday.

Bhutto has said that her Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) will participate in the election scheduled for January 8 under protest but Sharif has said the polls would be meaningless unless the judiciary is restored to its pre-emergency rule status.

"Sharif will hold a meeting with Bhutto in Islamabad on Monday," his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party leader, Raja Zafarul Haq told AFP.

The PPP also confirmed the two former prime ministers were in contact, and that a meeting was likely to take place next week.