Pakistan president refuses to quit after election wipeout

A defiant President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has rejected calls for his resignation, as his main opponents prepare to meet to cobble together a coalition that could impeach him or water down his powers. Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, said he would remain in office until the end of his five year term in 2012. He called for a "harmonious" coalition government between the main opposition parties which, according to unofficial results, won a substantial majority of seats in parliamentary elections on Feb. 18. The Pakistan People's Party, which was led by Benazir Bhutto until her assassination in December and won the most seats in the elections, suggested that Musharraf should quit. 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." Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister whose Pakistan Muslim League won the second highest number of seats in the National Assembly, has also urged Musharraf to quit on the same grounds. The Pakistan Muslim League (Q), which supports Musharraf, lost more than half its 118 seats in parliament, including those of 19 former federal ministers. But in an interview with the news media, President Musharraf pledged to serve his full term of office and to work with the new coalition government -- even if it involved Sharif, whom he ousted as Prime Minister in 1999, and unceremoniously deported late last year before the elections. Asked if he would resign or retire, he said: "No, not yet. We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan." Asked whether he could work with Sharif, he said: "The prime minister runs the government. The president has his own position but has no authority running the government. The clash would be if the prime minister and president would be trying to get rid of each other. I only hope we would avoid these clashes." He said it was premature to comment on who might be the country's next prime minister, as that was a matter for the political parties to decide. But he insisted that it would be impossible to reinstate Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice whom he dismissed in November when he imposed emergency rule to ensure his reelection as President. "There is no room for it. Legally, there's no way this can be done," he said. "It's not a possibility. I can't even imagine how this is doable." The status of Chaudhry, who is under house arrest in Islamabad, is one of the key issues to be discussed between Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and successor as PPP leader, when they meet. Sharif has demanded that he be released and reinstated, but the PPP leadership fears that Chaudhry would overturn an agreement with Musharraf under which corruption charges against Zardari were dropped. Chaudhry would also be almost certain to invalidate Musharraf's victory in a presidential election last year. Zardari has said that parliament should decide the president's future. Sharif and Zardari are also expected to meet with Asfandyar Wali Khan, the head of the Awami National Party. The PPP, the PML (N) and the ANP, combined with a few independents, hold more than the two-thirds majority in parliament that is needed to impeach Musharraf or change the constitution to reduce his powers.