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Pakistan parties form coalition
10/03/2008 12:41 - (SA)
Bhurban - Pakistan's election winners have agreed to form a coalition government and promised that parliament will restore senior judges fired last year by President Pervez Musharraf in a bid to secure the US-backed leader's continued rule.
In the capital, Islamabad, police fired tear gas at protesters on Sunday at the residence of the Supreme Court chief suspended by Musharraf one year earlier, a move that triggered the political turbulence still dogging Pakistan's return to democracy.
Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, whose government was ousted in Musharraf's 1999 military coup, announced their pact on Sunday after talks at a resort town in the foothills of the Himalayas.
"We are bound together in the spirit of democracy," Zardari said at a news conference.
He dedicated the agreement to Bhutto, who was slain in a suicide attack in December, and sought to reassure Western backers who had supported Musharraf for his help in pursuing al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
"We will not disappoint you," Zardari said, though he didn't elaborate on his counterterrorism strategy.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party won 120 seats in the new 342-seat National Assembly, followed by Sharif's party with 90. The former ruling party aligned with Musharraf got just 51.
The two largest parties, both moderate and secular, have vowed to tackle mounting economic problems including inflation and power outages as well as Islamic extremism. However, they have devoted much of their energy to finding ways to cut back Musharraf's powers, which include the right to dismiss the government.
- AP
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