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Musharraf calls for “harmonious coalition”

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday called for a “harmonious coalition” as the Pakistan People’s Party prepared for the task of forming a government with its allies that could move to impeach him.

A statement released by the Foreign Ministry said “the President emphasised the need for harmonious coalition in the interest of peaceful governance, development and progress of Pakistan,” after General (retd.) Musharraf met a visiting United States congressman.

“The elections have strengthened the moderate forces in the country,” it quoted the President as saying.

His statements came amid calls for his resignation from several quarters. A PPP statement “recalled General Musharraf’s recent statements that if the parties supporting him were defeated in the elections, then he would resign from his office.

While both PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif said the vote was a verdict against General Musharraf, hardliners in both parties openly called for him to quit.

Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, reiterated that General Musharraf must quit as Pakistan had clearly voted against him. The lawyer, who is in the PPP and deposed as Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary’s lead counsel, fired a warning shot that also appeared aimed at his party’s leadership.

“If the new Parliament does not move to restore Chief Justice Chaudhary by March 9 [the day he was first removed in 2007], we will begin a long march,” he said in Lahore.

Mr. Ahsan remains under house arrest, after his detention in the November 3 Emergency.

He said on Wednesday that he had declined the government’s offer of releasing him conditionally. The PML(N), which also holds the position that Mr. Chaudhary must be reinstated, has floated Mr. Ahsan’s name for premiership of a coalition government.

But Mr. Ahsan told journalists that Makhdoom Amin Fahim was his party’s best candidate for premiership.

At a press conference in Islamabad, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari said the party was more interested in the independence of the judiciary as an institution, rather than in “piecemeal” solutions.

On Tuesday, Javed Hashmi, a deputy leader of the PML(N), also made a demand for the reinstatement of Chief Justice Ifthikar Chaudhary and for the removal of General Musharraf.

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