Next test in Pakistan: Forming a government

LAHORE, PAKISTAN — Still bathing in the afterglow of their decisive victory at the polls, Pakistan’s rival opposition parties will embark in earnest today on forming a government, a challenge that may prove as difficult as winning a mandate in the first place.

Before Monday’s parliamentary elections, the talk among opposition groups was of unity in defeating allies of beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf. That accomplished, they are digging in for a period of intense negotiation as the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the two biggest vote-getters, try to consolidate their gains and grab the political edge before public goodwill fades.

The parties’ leaders, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, respectively, are scheduled to meet today to begin hashing out differences and trading demands, a process that could drag on for days. Complicating matters is the historical enmity between their two parties and their agendas, which may jibe in broad outline but differ in significant details.

With the largest number of seats in the parliament, the Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, has assumed the lead in cobbling together a coalition government and says it is entitled to name a prime minister.

In a surprise announcement, Zardari said Wednesday that he would not be his party’s candidate for the post. Instead, the PPP will choose a person from the senior leadership.

By bowing out, Zardari avoided the certain controversy that would have attended any attempt by him to secure the post. He has been dogged by corruption allegations stemming from his late wife’s two terms as prime minister -- allegations pursued by Sharif during his own stints as premier.

Zardari told reporters that he would invite several other parties to join the PPP in forming a “government of national consensus.”

“We are still on that position,” he said. “As a nation we stand together.”

He ruled out welcoming in the party tied to Musharraf, but he has pointedly not excluded the possibility of working with the president himself. Bhutto, before her assassination Dec. 27, had been in negotiations for months on a U.S.-backed power-sharing deal with Musharraf.

But any flexibility toward the Pakistani leader would put Zardari’s party at odds with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N. Sharif was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 military coup, and his campaign was animated by a strong desire for revenge. He has called for the president’s impeachment for assuming office illegally and for acts such as the widely condemned emergency rule declared for six weeks late last year.

Musharraf said he had no intention of stepping down, and cautioned the incoming parliament and prime minister against trying to get rid of him.

“I only hope we would avoid these clashes,” Musharraf said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, adding, “We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan.”

Sharif’s other major platform plank was his demand for the reinstatement of judges whom Musharraf summarily dismissed last year, possibly for fear that they might rule his presidency unconstitutional.

But Zardari has skirted that issue as well, agreeing on the need for an independent judiciary but stopping short of insisting on the restoration of the former judges. Observers say Zardari could be worried that those judges might strike down the amnesty granted him and Bhutto on corruption charges, which paved the way for their return to Pakistan after years of self-imposed exile.

It may be possible that Sharif, whose showing in the election exceeded many people’s expectations, will choose to keep his party in opposition. That would allow him to continue hammering on the issues of removing Musharraf and reinstating the judiciary, but insulate him from failing to deliver on those promises in a coalition government.

Moreover, he could then focus on tightening his grip in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and politically powerful province, where his party won the most seats in the provincial assembly. And he could keep Zardari, with whom he has had a hostile relationship, at arm’s length, despite their talk of unity.

“Deep down, they’re rivals, competitors,” said former Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, who was elected Monday to parliament with an offshoot of the PPP.

Still, many Pakistanis, buoyed by elections that they feared would be violent but turned out relatively calm, are hopeful that a new chapter of cooperation can begin for their long-troubled nation.

“We’ve forgotten the past. Now we’re ready to work” together, said Malik Mohammed Sharif, a worker for the Pakistan Muslim League-N and no relation to Nawaz Sharif. “They’re our brothers.”

Whatever the configuration of the new government, Washington is facing a changed political landscape in Pakistan, including the diminished fortunes of its favored ally, Musharraf, in the battle against Islamic extremism.

President Bush, traveling in Africa, acknowledged the change Wednesday.

“The people have spoken,” Bush said in Ghana. “It’s now time for the newly elected folks to show up and form their government. The question then is: Will they be friends of the United States? I certainly hope so.”

Sharif and Zardari have said that they want to revisit Pakistan’s role in fighting Islamic militants but have not specified how.

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Times staff writer Laura King in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.