Pakistan’s opposition parties to form government

PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s two main opposition parties announced they would form a new government together after their victory in elections this week, but skirted the issue of whether they would push for the ouster of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf.

The ruling party said Friday it doubted that the new alliance would be stable, calling it a “marriage of convenience.”

The broad agreement between the two secular opposition groups, which fought bitterly for a decade before Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, marks an important step toward setting up a civilian administration to govern the Islamic nation after years of military rule.

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, whose last government was ousted by Musharraf, made the announcement Thursday after meeting in Islamabad, days after defeating the ruling party in the parliamentary elections.

“We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form a government together in the center and in the provinces,” Sharif said at a joint news conference with Zardari. He added that a third smaller group, the Awami National Party, would join them.

“The future of democracy is within our grasp. We will strengthen the parliament, we will strengthen democracy, we will work together for Pakistan. We will make a stronger Pakistan,” Zardari said. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party won 87 National Assembly seats in Monday’s vote, and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N won 67 out of 268 seats contested.

The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q won 40, with the rest going to smaller parties and independent candidates. Six results have yet to be announced.

Islamabad, Thursday, AP