Pakistan's main opposition parties on Tuesday kicked off parleys to frame a charter of demands to be presented to the government as a precondition for their participation in the January 8 general elections.

Former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto [Images] joined hands on Monday for the first time, threatening to boycott the polls if President Pervez Musharraf [Images] does not agree to their charter of demands.

Following their parleys, Bhutto and Sharif agreed to form a eight-member committee of leaders of their parties to draw up the charter of demands that would be presented to Musharraf.

Members of the committee, comprising four leaders each of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and All Parties Democratic Movement � an opposition alliance led by Sharif's PML-N, said that they would prepare the charter in the next two to three days.

The committee will also decide on the deadline for the government to fulfill the demands.

Meanwhile Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz is facing possible arrest over his alleged involvement in the murder of five students in Lahore [Images] in 1998 when he was the Chief Minister of Punjab province.

An anti-terrorism court, which is hearing the case of the killing of the students - suspected criminals - in a fake gun battle with the police allegedly on instructions from Shahbaz, had earlier ordered his arrest.

In another political development, the rift within the Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amalon over boycotting the general election came to the fore today, with two of its top leaders expressing sharply divergent views on the issue.

MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who also heads the Jamaat-e-Islami, said in Peshawar that his party will not take part in polls under Musharraf's 'martial law'.

He said five of the MMA's six members are in favour of boycotting the polls while only the faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman wants to contest the January 8 parliamentary election.

The MMA, a grouping of religious parties, is also part of the All Parties Democratic Movement, which has threatened to boycott the polls.

However, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the MMA's secretary general, said that a boycott will not serve the interests of the opposition parties. He said the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam will contest the polls at all costs as it did not want to 'leave the field open for the pro-US lobby.'