Doubts linger over coalition politics

Islamabad: The two historically rival parties that won Pakistan's general election have vowed to work together to restore democracy, but some analysts doubt they will stick together for long.

The opposition trounced the unpopular President Pervez Musharraf's party in the February 18 parliamentary elections, with assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party winning the most seats, but not enough to rule on its own.

The party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, came second.

Bhutto and Sharif were bitter rivals in the 1990s when they alternated as prime minister. Both were accused of corruption and served two terms over a tumultuous period that ended when then army chief Musharraf ousted Sharif in a 1999 coup.

But Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), are vowing to work together to rid politics of the old military-bureaucratic establishment and set up true constitutional democracy.

It would be the first time in Pakistan's history that the two main parties have come together.

Establishment

"This is the first time they are both trying to diminish the significance and importance of the establishment, clearly the military, and to that extent they want to diminish the powers of the president," said newspaper editor Najam Sethi.

"So there's consensus on that, but as soon as that is resolved, how to deal with Musharraf, I think they will revert back to wanting to hog the show and this whole business of national reconciliation will be taken over by party politics."

While both Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who has been leading her party since her assassination on December 27, have stressed ridding politics of the establishment, they differ on Musharraf's fate.

Sharif has called for Musharraf to go, but Zardari has been less explicit, saying the new parliament should decide if it can work with him.

It is also not clear if Sharif's party will take cabinet posts in a PPP-led government or merely support it from outside while running the provincial government in Punjab, Pakistan's richest province and home to half its 160 million people.

Whatever happens with the government, some analysts say the two parties have both suffered at the hands of the establishment and have learnt from that.

They are now determined to stick together to implement a Charter of Democracy that Bhutto and Sharif agreed to in 2006 which sets out constitutional amendments and other reforms aimed at enshrining democracy, said political analyst Nasim Zehra.