Bangladesh News

The widower of Pakistan’s slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto met political leaders to discuss forming a coalition yesterday as police clashed with protesters opposed to President Pervez Musharraf.

Asif Ali Zardari was set to hold talks with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif on an alliance that could lead to the impeachment of Musharraf following the defeat of the president’s allies in parliamentary elections on Monday.

Just ahead of the In Islamabad Nawaz Sharif told hundreds of protesters outside the deposed chief justice’s house yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf’s rule was “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Sharif was addressing a crowd of lawyers who gathered outside former judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s residence in Islamabad to call for his reinstatement.

“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.

With other smaller parties on their side, Sharif-Zardari led opposition parties are close 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.

Thursday’s talks came as police teargassed lawyers calling for the restoration of the country’s deposed chief justice in the southern city of Karachi and thousands of protesters gathered in other cities.

Pakistan’s deposed chief justice rallied supporters from house arrest Thursday, demanding that the new government immediately restore judges axed by President Pervez Musharraf during emergency rule. Soon after, police fired tear gas at nearly 100 protesting lawyers in the southern city of Karachi.

Ex-chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry 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, who remains under house arrest in Islamabad.

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

Musharraf has rejected calls to quit in the wake of his allies’ 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.

Meanwhile Washington is hoping to keep working with President Pervez Musharraf and whatever government emerges following Pakistan’s election, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said yesterday.

“We look forward to working with whoever emerges as prime minister, we look forward to working with President Musharraf in his new role,” said Boucher, who is Condoleezza Rice’s deputy for south and Central Asian affairs.

“He’s now a civilian president” having giving up his military role, he told reporters during a visit to Brussels.

“With a civilian prime minister emerging in the country they are going to have to settle into what their futures and responsibilities are, what they want to undertake each in their own position.”

On Wednesday US President George W. Bush had declined to discuss the political fate of Musharraf, amid stepped up calls following the opposition’s sweeping victory for the staunch US ally’s resignation.

On Tuesday US President George W Bush telephoned Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf after his election defeat, the White House said Thursday, while refusing to describe what they discussed.

Asked whether Musharraf should resign, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters “it’s up to the Pakistani people to decide how to proceed” but added that he was someone “who could help Pakistan continue on the way to democracy.”

But his foes have shown little sign of wanting to work with him so far.

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.

On the other hand the Pakistan People’s Party of slain Benazir on Thursday demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate complaints of vote-rigging.

The commission should examine allegations of electoral fraud and rigging in Karachi city and elsewhere in southern Sindh province, senior PPP official Lateef Khosa told a news conference.

“Rigging was committed in targeted constituencies” by candidates backing President Pervez Musharraf, he said.

The PPP emerged as the largest party after the elections, followed by Sharif’s party and then the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q. The ANP became the third biggest opposition party.

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.

The fate of former chief justice Chaudhry is one of the central issues to the formation of the coalition and about how directly it will take on Musharraf.

Sharif has promised that his first act in government would be to seek the restoration of all judges including Chaudhry, by the use of an executive order granted to new prime ministers when they take office.

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

But party officials said the PPP was not keen on making any coalition deal that would involve a public commitment to bringing Chaudhry back.

Analysts say Musharraf will try to divide Zardari and Sharif and persuade Zardari to form a coalition with his own parties.