Stepping up pressure on Pervez Musharraf, the new Pakistan People's Party-led coalition, in a show of strength on Wednesday, demanded that the President convene Parliament immediately with PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif saying they are not prepared to wait for a 'single more day'.
The joint demand by the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Awami National Party to expedite government formation came even as the Pakistan government closed corruption cases against Asif Ali Zardari, triggering speculation that the PPP leader and Musharraf may have a possible understanding.
The winning parties at their first meeting assembled a total of 171 MPs, amid claims by Sharif that the new coalition had a two-third majority in an apparent suggestion that the option of impeaching Musharraf is not closed.
"Please see the numbers Mr Musharraf. We already have a two-thirds majority (in the National Assembly) and I would like to inform Mr Musharraf that we are not prepared to wait for a single more day for the assembly to be convened," Sharif told the new MPs to a loud applause at a Islamabad hotel. "We are ready for a transition."
Zardari, who is PPP's co-chairman, recalled the assassination of his wife and former premir Benazir Bhutto to urge the parliamentarians to restore democracy and cut down Pakistan's military-dominated establishment.
"This is a window of opportunity," Zardari said. "The homage to my shaheed (martyred) wife would be that we unite together, we take democracy, we take power for Parliament and once and for all finish the establishment," he added.
With Musharraf's fate hanging in the balance, the graft cases against Zardari were terminated shortly after the Supreme Court dismissed three petitions challenging his controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance.
PPP leaders--late Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, now the co-chairman of the single largest party, had got amnesty for the corruption cases dating back to the 1980s and 1990s following Musharraf's order.
The cases were terminated by the National Accountability Bureau. Sharif wanted Musharraf to quickly convene Parliament so that the parties can begin the gigantic task of restoring the country's much-amended constitution to trim Musharraf's sweeping powers, which include the right to dissolve Parliament.
"This person (Musharraf) has played havoc with the institutions of Pakistan," Sharif said. The three parties meeting today are expected to form a coalition government as early as next month with Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a longtime Bhutto loyalist, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister.
Earlier, senior PML-N member Chaudhry Nisar Ali told reporters, "Even if the heavens fall, we will not accept Pervez Musharraf as the legal, constitutional president." His party has decided not to be part of the government, to avoid taking oaths administered by Musharraf.
The PML-N, however, will be giving outside support to the new coalition. Ali criticised the country's electoral authorities, who have not yet officially announced the results of the elections held nine days ago.
"Today's meeting should not have arisen in a normal democratic set-up," he said. "The election results should have been announced within two or three days, but it has not been done yet," he added.
