Bhutto party, Sharif agree to form Pakistan government

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ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's two main opposition parties agreed
Thursday to form a coalition government after winning elections,
dealing a major blow to President Pervez Musharraf's hopes of
political survival.

The widower of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and ex-
premier Nawaz Sharif announced that they would "strengthen Pakistan
together" after they ousted Musharraf's allies in Monday's
parliamentary polls.

"We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form the
government in the centre and in the provinces," Sharif told a joint
news conference after talks with Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari.

"The sooner he (Musharraf) accepts the verdict, the better it is for
him," Sharif told reporters, sitting side by side with Zardari on
ornate gilt-edged chairs after nearly three hours of talks.

The move brings them closer to the two-thirds majority they would need
to seek Musharraf's impeachment, leaving him in the most precarious
position since he seized power in a 1999 coup.

"In principle, we have agreed to stay together. We intend to
strengthen Pakistan together," said Zardari, whose Pakistan People's
Party (PPP) is set to be the biggest party in the new parliament,
followed by Sharif's.

Sharif said the two parties had overcome their differences over his
demands for the immediate restoration of the country's chief justice,
whom Musharraf sacked in November, saying they would work on the issue
in parliament.

The announcement of the coalition comes despite what party officials
said were efforts by Musharraf to try to divide Zardari and Sharif and
persuade Zardari to form a coalition with his own parties.

Bhutto -- who was assassinated in a suicide attack in December that
the government has blamed on Al-Qaeda -- had been in talks with
Musharraf on a possible power-sharing deal in the months before her
death.

Zardari said the coalition would not involve any parties from the
alliance that backed former general Musharraf during the last
parliament from 2002 until November 2007.

"We are not looking at pro-Musharraf (parties)," he said. "I don't
believe pro-Musharraf forces exist."

Sharif earlier addressed hundreds of protesting lawyers outside
deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's Islamabad home,
where the judge remains under house arrest.

"It is your duty to adhere to the law and not to abide by the orders
of Pervez Musharraf who is illegal and unconstitutional," he told the
demonstrators as hundreds of paramilitary troops and police stood
guard.

Police fired tear gas at lawyers calling for the restoration of
Chaudhry in the southern city of Karachi. Thousands more demonstrated
elsewhere.

Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf under emergency rule in
November, said in a telephone address to the lawyers in Karachi that
there was no constitutional hurdle to judges getting their jobs back.

"I was deposed by an executive order and I can be restored by an
executive order. There is no need of two-thirds majority of the
parliament," said Chaudhry.

If Chaudhry gets his job back he could overturn Musharraf's
controversial victory in a presidential election in October and oust
him as president.

In the eastern city of Lahore about 2,000 lawyers chanted "Go,
Musharraf, go" and "Restore independence of judiciary" during a
protest.

Musharraf has rejected calls to quit in the wake of his allies'
electoral defeat. He has been backed for most of his time in office by
the United States as a key ally against Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda
network.

The embattled leader, who stepped down as army chief late last year,
extended an offer of cooperation to his rivals on Wednesday, calling
for a "harmonious coalition" after the polls.

Zardari's first meeting on Thursday was with the leader of a small
ethnic Pashtun secular grouping, the Awami National Party (ANP), which
defeated hardline Islamic parties in the country's insurgency-hit
northwest.

"We have decided to work together for the interest of Pakistan,
democracy and supremacy of democratic institutions, and rule of law in
the country," Zardari said after the meeting.

The ANP became the third biggest opposition party after the polls.

ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan said he and Zardari had agreed "in
principle to go together for supremacy of democracy" but said there
were some issues which still needed to be resolved.


M WAHEED JADOON
WORLD DEMOCRACY MEDIA GROUP
NEW YORK

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