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Sharif, Zardari, Ex-Rivals, Pursue Pakistan Coalition

By admin | February 20, 2008

Pakistan’s two main opposition groups are trying to put aside decades of rivalry to form a two- thirds majority in Parliament with other parties to challenge President Pervez Musharraf’s rule.

Power sharing won’t be easy. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League and the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party have never formed a coalition government and were adversaries between 1988 and 1999, when each party held power twice.

Forging a common bond will be key to the stability of this nuclear-armed nation after terrorist killings doubled last year and Musharraf suspended the constitution and fired his top judges to maintain his grip on power. The president said a “harmonious coalition” is essential to ensure peace.

Sharif and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari “have a very close understanding on the issue of returning Pakistan to constitutional rule and cutting back military intervention in politics,” said Hussain Haqqani, a Pakistani scholar at Boston University who is close to Zardari. Although they may “disagree on the nitty-gritty,” they now see Musharraf, rather than each other, as the enemy, he said.

Sharif and Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, invited other political groups to join them when they sit down tomorrow in an attempt to forge a coalition government. Sharif vowed to end “dictatorship forever” in a nation that has had military governments for more than half its existence.

Move Forward

“We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan,” Musharraf said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

He responded: “No, not yet” when asked whether he is considering resigning or retiring.

The coalition will influence the next stage in the U.S. war on terrorism, after the Bush administration funneled $10 billion into Musharraf’s military and lent support to Bhutto, the former prime minister who was assassinated on Dec. 27. Sharif spent seven years in exile in Saudi Arabia, campaigned in armored cars supplied by the kingdom, and has few connections with the U.S.

The U.S. must rethink its “Musharraf-centric policy and come to understand that Musharraf is part of the problem, not part of the solution,” said Haqqani, a former adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers.

“It is a repudiation of full U.S. support for Musharraf and for the notion that he’s indispensable,” Haqqani said in a telephone interview. “Pakistani voters have said he’s definitely dispensable. And Washington should respond to that.”

`Democracy Dividend’

Senator Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday the U.S. should triple non-military assistance to Pakistan as a “democracy dividend” after parliamentary elections. Pakistan is bordered by Iran, India, China and Afghanistan.

The U.S. should use the Feb. 18 election as an opportunity to re-focus policy away from one person to working with all people, Biden told a news conference in Islamabad.

President George W. Bush hailed the result as a “victory for the people of Pakistan.”

“I view it as a part of the victory on the war on terror,” Bush said today at a press conference in Accra, Ghana. “And the question then is: Will they be friends of the United States? I certainly hope so,” said Bush.

Contested Seats

With 262 of 268 contested races decided, the Pakistan Peoples Party had 87 seats in the new legislature and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League took 67. Another anti-Musharraf group, the Awami National Party, plus smaller groups and independents held enough seats to give Zardari and Sharif a prospect of a two-thirds-strong coalition — enough to impeach Musharraf and to change the constitution to reduce the president’s power.

The voter turnout was 45.6 percent of registered voters in the Feb. 18 election, compared with 42 percent in the 2002 vote, according to the Election Commission.

European Union monitors said that authorities didn’t provide a “level playing field” in the run up to the elections and on polling day.

Public money was used to support the Musharraf-backed former ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam, said Michael Gahler, the chief of European Union observer mission, which monitored polling in 115 constituencies.

“Lack of confidence in the independence of the Election Commission remains,” he said at a news conference in Islamabad.

Seizing Power

Since seizing power in a 1999 military coup, Musharraf has turned the presidency from a largely ceremonial post to a powerful executive with the authority to dissolve Parliament and change the constitution at will.

While Zardari and Sharif haven’t worked together before as leaders, their partnership might be eased by the legacy of Bhutto, said Haris Gazdar, an economic and political analyst at the Karachi-based Collective for Social Science Research.

Bhutto established her own relationship with Sharif and pressed both men to be more pragmatic, he said. “To the extent that Zardari and Sharif continue to think along her lines, they will be able to cooperate,” he said.

Sharif and Bhutto twice served as prime minister in Pakistan, the world’s second-most populous Muslim nation. All four administrations were dismissed before the completion of their five-year terms, prompted by allegations of corruption and mismanagement by the other party.

Bhutto’s party has its stronghold in the southern province of Sindh and wins seats in the other three regions. Sharif’s party derives its strength from Punjab, the largest province.

Zardari and Sharif have reconciled “and they do talk quite frankly and in a very friendly manner,” said Haqqani.

`Charter of Democracy’

Following imprisonment after he was overthrown by Musharraf and the enforced exile, Sharif reconciled with Bhutto, signing a “charter of democracy” with her in 2006, in which they pledged to cooperate in getting the Pakistani army removed from politics.

In a news conference yesterday, Sharif said he was prepared to meet with Zardari and the Awami party leader, Asfandyar Wali Khan, to discuss a new government. He offered conciliation to members of his own party who defected in past years to the pro- Musharraf faction, the Pakistan Muslim League–Quaid-i-Azam. He invited them to rejoin his fold now that their party was defeated in this week’s election.

Sharif has been “statesmanlike” in his opening to Bhutto’s party, notably following her assassination, said Rashed Rahman, a political commentator of the Lahore daily newspaper, The Post. He looks like a man who “is not in a hurry” and “who wants to build a national consensus and bring other parties with him,” Rahman said on the independent Dawn News TV channel.

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