Security forces in Pakistan on Thursday unearthed a roadside time-bomb just minutes before a convoy with former premier Nawaz Sharif was to pass the spot in the restive North West Frontier Province's Peshawar city.

Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leaders said the convoy was stopped about a kilometre before it reached the area. The bomb, with 400 gm of explosives and a timer under a bridge, was defused by the bomb disposal squad.

The former premier was on his way to the Peshawar high court where the PML-N party chief to address a meeting of the local bar council ahead of crucial elections to the National and Provincial assemblies on February 18.

Last month fellow opposition leader Benazir Bhutto [Images] was killed in suicide attack at an election meeting in Rawalpindi.
The caretaker government has warned that the top opposition leader is on the hit-list of terrorists.

Sharif, while addressing members of the Peshawar Bar Council, flayed President Pervez Musharraf [Images] for all the violence in the country.

The PML-N chief also addressed a convention of party workers in the nearby Jhagra village under tight city. Nearby roads were almost sealed and special entry gates were set up.

PML-N volunteers and police frisked all persons who attended the gathering while policemen were deployed on the roofs of nearby buildings.

There has been surge in violence and suicide bombings since Pakistani security forces conducted its bloody operations against the pro-Taliban militants holed-up inside Islamabad's Lal Mosque last July.

The bloodshed has escalated since Bhutto's killing on December 27.