Opposition parties in Pakistan close in on coalition deal

Pakistan’s two main opposition parties say they will form a new government after their victory in elections this week.

The broad agreement between the two secular groups, which tussled for power for a decade before President Pervez Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, marks an important step towards setting up a civilian administration to govern the Islamic nation after years of military rule.

Asif Ali Zardari, the widowed husband of murdered former premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, whose last government was ousted by President Musharraf, made the announcement after meeting in Islamabad, three days after defeating the ruling party in the parliamentary elections.

“We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form a government together in the centre and in the provinces,” Mr Sharif said last night at a joint news conference with Mr Zardari. He added that a third smaller group, the Awami National Party, would join them.

“The future of democracy is within our grasp. We will strengthen the parliament, we will strengthen democracy, we will work together for Pakistan. We will make a stronger Pakistan,” Mr Zardari said.

Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party won 87 National Assembly seats in Monday’s vote and Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N won 67 out of 268 seats contested. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q won 40, with the rest going to smaller parties and independent candidates. Six results have yet to be announced.

The result exposed President Musharraf’s own lack of public support amid rising Islamic militancy and anger over his crackdown on the independent judiciary. It also raised questions about his survival as head of state. He recently resigned from the army, considerably diminishing his power.

While both parties rode a wave of anti-Musharraf sentiment, they still have to hammer out the details of how they will share power and resolve divergence in policy.

Mr Sharif has been far sterner in demanding President Musharraf be removed from power and in seeking the immediate restoration of the chief justice sacked by the president when he declared emergency rule late last year – just as the Supreme Court was to rule on the legality of President Musharraf’s October re-election as head of state.

In what appeared to be a face-saving formula, Mr Sharif said he and Mr Zardari had agreed in principle on restoration of the judges, but would leave it to parliament to sort out the details.

Just a few hours earlier he had made an impassioned address to protesters at the barricades in front of the Islamabad house of the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, demanding his immediate release and his restoration to the Supreme Court, which is now stacked with President Musharraf appointees.

The two party leaders did not make explicit whether they would push for Musharraf’s removal from power, but Mr Sharif reiterated his desire for the US-backed president to go.

“I think the nation today has given out its verdict, and that verdict is amply clear and it is from every nook and corner of Pakistan. He also understands that. The sooner he accepts the verdict, the better it is for him,” Mr Sharif said.

President Musharraf, a key ally of Washington in its war on terror, has said he has no intention of resigning and intends to serve out his five-year term.

Speculation is swirling in Islamabad that the US is pressuring the opposition parties to work with President Musharraf, although many in Pakistan see him as a divisive figure whose continued presence could lead to further political confrontation and destabilise the new government.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that US officials were telling opposition forces that moderates in the government should work together to fight extremists and move towards democracy.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was up to the “people to decide whether Musharraf retains his position”.

Last year, the US and Britain pushed for a rapprochement between Ms Bhutto and President Musharraf. The two held talks, paving the way for Ms Bhutto’s return from exile amid hopes they could form a pro-Western alliance and galvanise Pakistan’s struggling campaign against the Taliban and al Qaida.

The negotiations collapsed before Ms Bhutto’s assassination in a December 27 suicide attack, but Mr Zardari has yet to rule out working with the retired general.

One of the first tasks of the new government, expected to be installed by mid-March, will be determining how to fight Islamic extremists, who have expanded their reach beyond traditional north-western regions bordering Afghanistan.

The country has been hit by dozens of attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent months that together have left hundreds dead.

Both opposition parties have mulled the idea of negotiating with militants rather then relying on military force, but they have not yet given a clear indication of what that might entail.

Mr Zardari said that the first act of the new government will be to ask the United Nations for help in uncovering who was behind Ms Bhutto’s killing.

US and Pakistani officials have accused Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud of masterminding the assassination, but many Pakistanis suspect Pakistani intelligence may have been involved in her death.