World | Pakistan
Former prime minister Sharif again tells president to quit
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday once again asked President Pervez Musharraf to resign, despite US pressure for his continuation and his own stated desire to work with the new post-election government.
- By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
- Published: 21:50 February 25, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (left) chats with Qazi Hussain Ahmad, chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, in Islamabad.
Islamabad: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday once again asked President Pervez Musharraf to resign, despite US pressure for his continuation and his own stated desire to work with the new post-election government.
"Mr Musharraf should see the writing on the wall and the sooner he steps down the better for him," said the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).
Sharif, who was speaking to reporters after a meeting with Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, said Musharraf was "unconstitutional and illegal" president who had committed "murder" of the independent judiciary.
He said reinstatement of deposed judges and restoration of the judiciary would be the top priority of his party in the upcoming parliament.
Once the judiciary as it existed before November 3 emergency was restored it would decide about legality of Musharraf's re-election in uniform in October by the then assemblies, Sharif said.
He said parliamentary groups of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and PML-N as well as the Awami National Party (ANP) would meet tomorrow to demand convening of the newly-elected National Assembly and transfer of power without delay.
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PPP emerged first and PML-N second in 342-member National Assembly in the general elections held a week ago.
Coalition government
Sharif and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari later met and agreed the two parties would form a coalition government with the support of the ANP, which got 10 seats in the federal assembly and became the top party in the legislature of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The PML-N leader said the parliament would be made sovereign by annulling all the "illegal" steps taken by Musharraf.
Musharraf's spokesman, retired major general Rashid Qureshi, brushed aside Sharif's demand for the president's resignation.
Qureshi told a private channel that Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Imran Khan were not in the parliament and therefore had no locus standi to make the demand.
Except for this tiny minority, he said the PPP and other parties had not called for Musharraf's resignation following the elections, in which the pro-president PML-Q was routed.
He said Musharraf had stated before and after the elections that he would function with the new government and there was no change in that position.
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