Islamabad: Pakistan's Election Commission will tomorrow complete the scrutiny of nearly 13,500 nominations filed for the January 8 polls to the national and provincial assemblies amid threats by some parties to boycott the elections.

A total of 13,490 nomination papers, including 4,118 for 342 National Assembly seats and 9,372 for nearly 600 seats in the four provincial assemblies, were filed, said Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad.

The end of the period for the scrutiny of nominations tomorrow will coincide with a meeting between Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to discuss a possible boycott.

Bhutto has said her party will participate in the polls "under protest" while the PML-N and other members of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) have threatened to boycott the polls if deposed judges of the Supreme Court are not reinstated by December 15. However, the PML-N and other parties in the APDM are deeply divided over the boycott call.

Though the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal has so far endorsed the APDM's boycott, one of the key constituents of the grouping of religious parties -- Maulana Fazlur Rehman's faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -- has said it is determined to contest the elections.

President Pervez Musharraf has made it clear that he will brook no opposition to hold the parliamentary polls as scheduled. He said yesterday that "agitation in the name of politics" would not be tolerated.

Source : PTI