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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

[chottala.com] Bhutto party in coalition offer

Bhutto party in coalition offer
The party of Pakistan's late former PM Benazir Bhutto - the biggest winner in Monday's election - says it is ready to form a coalition with the PML-N party.
If finalised, an alliance of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the PML-N would have more than half the seats in a new parliament.
The main party backing President Pervez Musharraf suffered heavy defeats.
The president has never looked more vulnerable, the BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says.
If a new governing coalition could muster a two-thirds majority in parliament, it could call for Mr Musharraf to be impeached.
President Musharraf has been a major US ally in the "war on terror" but his popularity has waned at home amid accusations of authoritarianism and incompetence.
The US State Department described the election as a "step toward the full restoration of democracy".
'End of dictatorship'
At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Bhutto's widower and the PPP leader, Asif Ali Zardari, said his party would "form a government of national consensus which will take along every democratic force".
"For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government," he said, seemingly ruling out any coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League's pro-Musharraf wing, the PML-Q.
The PPP has won 87 seats so far, according to the website of private TV network, Geo.
The PML-N, or Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz, which is led by another former PM, Nawaz Sharif, has 66 seats so far.
Mr Sharif said earlier on Tuesday that he was prepared to discuss joining a coalition with Mr Zardari's party in order "to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever".
The two parties so far have a combined total of 153 seats in the 272-seat parliament.
President Pervez Musharraf main parliamentary ally, the PML-Q, has already admitted defeat.
The party has come a distant third, with 38 seats so far.
PML-Q chairman, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, told Associated Press Television News his party accepted the results "with an open heart" and was prepared to "sit on opposition benches".
Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, was forced by his foreign allies to step down as army chief last year.
The parliamentary election has been seen as a key milestone in Pakistan's transition from military to civilian rule.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7253280.stm

Published: 2008/02/19 16:40:47 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

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