Guarded by hundreds of police, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto took her election campaign to Pakistan's tribal north west today as the opposition prepared to battle President Pervez Musharraf.
After a vote boycott drive disintegrated, main opposition leaders Ms Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who have both returned from exile, organised rallies in a campaign clouded by worries of vote rigging and militant attacks.
Underlining the insecurity, pro-Taliban militants killed six Pakistani soldiers in an attack on a military convoy in the north west near the Afghan border and 15 insurgents were killed in retaliation, the military said.
"We should not sit as silent spectators while terrorists are killing innocent people," Ms Bhutto told supporters in the town of Nowshera in North West Frontier Province, where tribal militants are fighting government forces.
Several thousand people chanted "Prime Minister Bhutto" and clapped as she stood to speak from behind a bullet-proof podium.
More than 800 people have been killed in militant-related fighting since July, military officials say. With the main opposition parties adding credibility to a January 8th parliamentary election by agreeing to run, political leaders organised their parties before the campaign picks up pace with the publication of candidates' lists on Sunday.
Mr Sharif held rallies in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, which returns about half the members of parliament and is his traditional stronghold of support.
"These meetings are kind of warm-up matches," said Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Mr Sharif's party. The election is essentially a three-way contest between the two main opposition parties and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which backs Mr Musharraf.
The opposition fears there is too little time before the election for a free and fair vote and that the result will be biased in favour of parties loyal to Mr Musharraf, raising the prospect of a contested result.
The Pakistani media, curbed under emergency rule imposed by Mr Musharraf last month, said authorities were trying to restrict election coverage with a warning not to violate a ban on live broadcasts, or risk three years in jail.
"It's not only a warning but a threat to all TV channels and an attempt to silence the free media," the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said in a statement. Any contested result would lead to the prospect of more instability in the nuclear-armed US ally.
Asked whether US President George W. Bush retains confidence in Mr Musharraf, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters: "He (Musharraf) said that the state of emergency would be lifted on December 16. And today is only the 12th. So let's wait and see."