Pat Dollard

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(AFP) – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rejected calls to resign as opposition parties on Wednesday mulled a coalition government that could force the key US ally from power.

Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf removed from office in a 1999 coup, and the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, both said they wanted to work with other opposition groups after Monday’s vote.

Sharif urged Musharraf to quit, while Asif Ali Zardari said he would not work with anyone associated with the party that backed Musharraf in the last parliament, which observers said suffered a stinging defeat at the polls.

A statement from Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday “recalled General Musharraf’s recent statements that if the parties supporting him were defeated in the elections, then he would resign from his office.”

Despite the intensifying pressure on Musharraf, he told an American newspaper that he has no plans to quit.

Asked by the Wall Street Journal whether he would resign or retire, Musharraf said: “No, not yet. We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan.”

Musharraf was also quoted in the interview published on the newspaper’s website as saying he would like to function “with any party and any coalition because that is in the interest of Pakistan.”

Zardari might meet with Sharif on Thursday for their first meeting since the election, said Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for Bhutto’s party.

Central executive committees of both parties were also to hold separate meetings on Wednesday, with contacts between the two sides expected.

A firebrand lawyer detained by Musharraf since November, Aitzaz Ahsan, called on Tuesday for the president to resign.

Opinion polls before the election showed that up to three-quarters of Pakistanis questioned said it was time for him to go.

“He should quit,” said Tabassum Vohra, 50, a man selling medical supplies on a busy commercial street in the eastern city of Lahore. “If he does not quit, then everything will be useless — the elections, the change. We want change.”

Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, on Wednesday said he hoped the election “will usher in a new dawn of stability and prosperity in Pakistan.” Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan after a war in 1971.

Election commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad said official results of the vote were set to be announced on Wednesday after the final handful of constituencies were tallied.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Sharif’s party had a combined total of 153 seats, the commission said. The former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allies together had 58.

Results also showed a near total defeat for hardline Islamic parties that under the previous administration ruled Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

A European Union team which monitored the vote was to deliver its report on Wednesday. A team of US senators that observed the election called it credible and legitimate while the White House called the vote “largely fair.”

A hostile parliament threatens the political survival of Musharraf, who could theoretically face impeachment if the opposition gets a two-thirds majority.

Analysts said Musharraf’s most likely strategy would be to woo Bhutto’s party and split it from Sharif’s by preying on the one-time rift between the ex-prime ministers.

Bhutto was killed in a December gun and suicide attack on a campaign rally.

Musharraf, who shed his dual role as chief of the army late last year, had already been weakened by a bruising months-long stand-off with the country’s deposed chief justice and deepening unpopularity.

To bolster his position he has relied on backing from the United States — and financial aid of 10 billion dollars, mainly military, since he joined the Washington-led “war on terror” in 2001.

A fresh challenge could come if Sharif pursues his pledge to restore chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf under a state of emergency in November and remains under house arrest.

Musharraf ousted Chaudhry when it looked like Pakistan’s Supreme Court was set to deprive him of a second term as president, but that move could come back to haunt him if the judge gets his job back.

Babar, the PPP spokesman, said both his party and Sharif’s committed to ensure judicial independence under a 2006 charter they reached for restoring democracy in the country.