Pervez Musharraf`s opponents said on Tuesday they would try to form a coalition, after winning an election that cast doubt over how long the US-allied Pakistani President can stay in power.
A wave of sympathy helped the Pakistan
People`s
Party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto emerge as the largest party in the 342-seat National Assembly, although it failed
to win a majority.
A hostile parliament could seek to oust Musharraf, who came to power in a coup in 1999 and is accused of violating the constitution when he imposed six weeks of emergency rule in November to secure five more years as President.
Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto`s widower, said the PPP had the right to form a coalition government, adding there would be no place in it for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q).
"As the largest political force of the country, we demand that we be allowed to make the government," he told a news conference in Islamabad.
"For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government," Zardari said, appearing to leave open the option of changing his mind later.
Zardari, who took over the leadership of the PPP after Bhutto`s death, said he would try to persuade Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew, to join a coalition.
Speaking at a news conference in Lahore, Sharif urged Musharraf to accept he was no longer wanted, "Dictatorship". "He would say, when people would want, I will go. Today the people have said what they want," Sharif said after his party ran a close second in Monday`s polls.
Sharif said he planned to meet Zardari on Thursday.
"I invite all to sit together and free Pakistan of dictatorship," said Sharif, who returned from exile in November, a month later than Bhutto.
PML-Q concedes defeat Pakistan`s PML-Q party loyal to President Pervez Musharraf today conceded defeat in parliamentary polls which saw the emergence of opposition PPP and PML-N as the key players. The party accepts the verdict of the people, PML-Q spokesman Tariq Azeem said.
PML-Q suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of opposition parties PPP and PML-N in yesterday`s polls for the National Assembly, lower house of Parliament, and four provincial assemblies.
Bhutto`s assassination in a suicide attack on December 27 heightened concern about the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim state, where al Qaeda leaders have taken refuge.
Musharraf, who emerged as a crucial US ally in a "war on terror" most Pakistanis think is Washington`s, not theirs, has seen his popularity plummet in the last year as he reeled from one political crisis to another.
Groups of opposition supporters celebrated in the streets across the country as results rolled out showing pro-Musharraf politicians losing.
While Pakistanis hoped for a new era, many remained unconvinced by the reappearance of politicians associated with corrupt, inefficient governments from the 1990s.
"The promises that have been made by Nawaz Sharif and People`s Party should now be fulfilled and they should do something for the country and not for themselves," said Mohammed Arif, sitting in his pharmacy in Karachi.
The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League trailed a distant third. The party`s spokesman conceded defeat after the voters` verdict but kept alive chances of joining a coalition.
"They have rejected our policies and we have accepted their verdict," PML`s Tariq Azim Khan told a news agency, adding: "We’re willing to cooperate and work with anybody."
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