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'Musharraf should step down'
20/02/2008 10:24 - (SA)
Islamabad - A top Pakistan opposition leader has called on President Pervez Musharraf to step aside after his ruling party conceded defeat in parliamentary elections.
The vote also was a slap to Islamist parties, who lost control of a province where al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters have sought refuge.
Although final official results were not expected until later on Wednesday, opposition parties were confident of victory and began mapping plans for a new government and a possible showdown with Musharraf.
With counting from Monday's election nearly complete, the two main opposition parties had won a total of 154 of the 268 contested seats, according to the Election Commission. The pro-Musharraf party trailed with 39 seats, and the group's leader acknowledged the loss.
'He has closed his eyes'
"We accept the election results, and will sit on opposition benches," Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chairperson of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told AP Television News on Tuesday. "We are accepting the results with grace and open heart."
Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, recalled statements by Musharraf last year that he would step down only if he lost the support of the Pakistani people.
"He has closed his eyes. He has said before that he would go when the people want him to do so and now the people have given their verdict," Sharif told reporters in Lahore.
The Pakistan People's Party of assassinated ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto was leading with 86 seats and was likely to spearhead the new government in partnership with other opposition groups.
Government of national unity
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, told reporters on Tuesday that he would meet soon with Sharif and other opposition leaders "to form a government of national unity". Zardari made clear that he would not include politicians who had been allied with Musharraf.
"We will seek support from democratic forces to form the government, but we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the previous government," Zardari said.
But Zardari carefully avoided an unequivocal statement about whether Musharraf should remain in power. The two main opposition parties were unlikely to finish with two-thirds of the seats required to impeach the president.
Musharraf's spokesperson, Rashid Quereshi, rejected suggestions that the president step down. US Senator John Kerry, who met on Tuesday with Musharraf along with other US lawmakers, said the president expressed his willingness to work with the new government.
But the former general is so unpopular among the Pakistani public that opposition parties are likely to find little reason to work with him -particularly since he no longer controls the powerful army.
At best, Musharraf faces the prospect of remaining in power with sharply diminished powers even if the opposition fails to muster the two-thirds support in parliament to impeach him.
- AP
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