Suicide blast kills six at Pakistan navy college

LAHORE -- A suicide bomber killed at least six people and wounded 19 in an attack on Tuesday on a Pakistan naval college in the eastern city of Lahore, officials said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news conference that a mini-bus entered the college when a suicide bomber following closely behind blew up his vehicle.
The bomber killed himself and four others in the initial attack, navy officials said, but two more people died in secondary explosions that followed.
"I saw a fully charred body," a Reuters photographer at the scene said. "A black cloud of smoke was rising from the scene as I reached there."
It was the fourth suicide attack in Pakistan in five days, further unsettling a country already reeling from a bomb campaign waged by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Over 500 people have been killed in related violence since the start of the year, stoking fears over the deteriorating security situation in the nuclear-armed state.
Tackling the violence will provide a tough test for the incoming government following elections two weeks ago which saw no clear winner emerge, leading to coalition talks between various parties mostly hostile to President Pervez Musharraf.
Television pictures showed damaged vehicles near the bent and buckled gates of the college. Emergency vehicles were seen rushing in and out of the premises.
Lahore, the capital of Punjab province and about 290 kilometres southeast of the capital, has rarely been targeted before, although a suicide bomber killed 19 people, mostly police, in an attack near the High Court in January.
Last week, a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi killed the military's top medical officer, Lieutenant-General Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, making him the most senior military officer to die in the violence to date.
Tuesday's blast in the country's cultural capital and political nerve centre coincided with a visit by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen for talks with Pakistan's military leadership and President Pervez Musharraf.
Mullen's visit aimed at reinforcing the military relationship with Pakistan, according to embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton.
The West shudders at the thought of Pakistan sliding into chaos. Sections of the Western media have depicted Pakistan as the most dangerous country in the world.
Many Pakistanis believe there is some grand conspiracy to take away Pakistan's nuclear weapons, but realization of the scale of the internal threat is dawning.
The deteriorating law and order situation put pressure on a stock market that remains the best performer in Asia this year, although it is considered difficult and illiquid by many investors.
The index shed 0.5% on Tuesday, though it is up over 3% since the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections and over 5.25% this year.
Elsewhere in Pakistan on Tuesday, five people including four militants were killed in a gunbattle with police near the town of Lakki Marwat in the northwest, police said. The dead included two Uzbek and two local militants.
The shootout, near the town where three police were killed by a roadside bomb on Friday, broke out after militants kidnapped a local councillor and two colleagues.

Suicide bomber kills 39 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - At least 39 people were killed and scores more injured when a suicide bomber attacked a traditional tribal meeting in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, officials said.
Pakistan is in the middle of a wave of violence blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants based in tribal lands on the Afghan border and there have been three suicide attacks in as many days.
Over 500 people have been killed in militant related violence this year alone.
A top government official in Darra Adam Kheil tribal region told Reuters the bomber detonated a device while tribal elders were holding an outdoor "jirga", or traditional meeting.
"They were finalising the formation of a committee of locals to take steps against miscreants and help the government," said Kamran Zaib, a government official.
A security official who asked not to be identified put the number of dead at 39.
Local television showed pictures of residents and authorities cleaning up the blast site, a shady clearing surrounded by tall trees with a backdrop of rugged mountains.
Piles of torn clothing and bloody Muslim prayer caps were mixed up with the shattered remains of "charpoys", wood and rope daybeds.
"I saw three persons...all of them were not locals. The youngest one walked straight toward elders and blew himself up in the middle of them," said Naimat Khan, a witness.
Zaib said a head and identity card found at the scene were believed to belong to the bomber. He said the attacker was aged around 18-20.
A suicide attack on a police funeral in northwest Pakistan killed at least 38 people on Friday, while on Monday the army's top medical officer was killed in a bomb attack in Rawalpindi.
The escalating violence has raised concern about the stability of the nuclear armed state as it passes through a period of political transition, with doubts over how long President Pervez Musharraf can hold onto power after his allies lost a parliamentary election on February 18.
Militants intensified their suicide bomb campaign after the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque last July to crush a militant student movement.

Musharraf to free Indian "spy" condemned to death

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has accepted a mercy plea from an Indian national who spent 35 years on death row on spying charges, and ordered his release, a minister said on Friday.
Kashmir Singh, was arrested in the city of Rawalpindi with another Indian in 1973 while trying to smuggle goods from Pakistan to India.
The other man was sentenced to 10 years in jail and has been sent back to India, but a military court sentenced Singh to death.
"Kashmir Singh has gone through hell during the last 35 years. He has suffered more than enough for his alleged crime," Minister for Human Rights, Ansar Burney, told Reuters.
"I personally requested the president to accept his mercy petition in the greater interest of human rights and allow him to return home and spend the rest of his life with his family."
Burney said Singh would be released on Monday and handed over to Indian authorities.
The father of two sons and a daughter, Singh was from Indian Punjab and contact has been made with his family through Indian politicians, he said.
According to a report from the private Human Rights Commission of Pakistan last year, more than 7,300 men and 44 women are languishing in death cells across Pakistan.
In most cases, death sentences are not carried out because of lengthy appeals.
In 2006, Musharraf commuted the death sentence of a Briton who spent 18 years in jail for murder.
Nuclear armed Pakistan and India have fought three wars since winning independence from Britain in 1947 and the nearly went to war again in 2002.
Their relations have improved considerably since they launched a peace process in 2004 but they routinely arrest each others' nationals who have strayed across land or sea borders.

Sharif wants probe on Musharraf's role in Kargil war

The new government in Pakistan should review the causes for the Kargil war, including President Pervez Musharraf's role, and fix responsibility for the conflict with India, former premier Nawaz Sharif has said.The Charter of Democracy signed by the Pakistan People's Party and the PML-N nearly two years ago committed both parties to setting up a commission to review the Kargil conflict, Sharif, whose party has decided top support a PPP-led coalition government, said.The document also committed the parties to abolishing the National Security Council, making the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency accountable to the civilian government and getting all army officers to declare their assets annually, the PML (N) chief said.''We stand by the Charter. We think it's an excellent document (and) it must be implemented in letter and spirit. And I have all the intentions to do that,'' Sharif told interviewer Karan Thapar on the Devil's Advocate programme.''The PPP is committed to that because it bears the signature of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.''Asked if he was still committed to the setting up of a commission to look into the causes of Kargil and to fix responsibility, Sharif replied, ''Yes.''Sharif, whose PML(N) emerged as the second largest party after PPP in the February 18 polls, also said the charter continued to be binding despite slain former premier Bhutto's talks on a possible power-sharing arrangement with Musharraf. Sharif has for long contested Musharraf's contention that he was aware about and had backed the plan to take over strategic heights in the Kargil sector of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999, while he was the prime minister.The conflict stalled a peace initiative that had been launched by Sharif and his then Indian counterpart, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, barely months before Pakistani troops took over the heights in Kargil.The Pakistani troops and mujahideen were evicted after a three-month long campaign.Asked if a possible probe into the Kargil affair was another way to target Musharraf, Sharif said: ''It's not targeting. It is straightening out things. We have to put our house in order and we want to put our house in order.''Sharif also did not rule out the possibility of taking legal action against Musharraf for deposing him in a military coup in 1999, barely three months after the end of the Kargil conflict, and for abrogating the constitution.''Somebody will have to be taken to task. After all, abrogating the constitution is not a small crime. Does it happen in India?'' he said.''What is the harm if any such action is initiated?''Asked if he would actually initiate legal action against Musharraf, Sharif said, ''Who knows? Well, time will tell. I think the country has suffered enough at the hands of these dictators.''Sharif repeated his call for Musharraf to quit in the wake of the defeat of his supporters in the February 18 general election. ''That is why we are saying repeatedly, 'Mr Musharraf step down.' There may be a safe exit now available to you.''

Suicide bomber attack kills at least 40 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a peacemaking meeting of tribal elders in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 100, witnesses and officials said.
It was the third suicide bombing in as many days in the northwest, where security forces were battling pro-Taliban Islamic militants.
It took place at the public meeting in the tribal-majority town of Darra Adam Khel in North West Frontier Province about 25 miles south of the provincial capital, Peshawar. Tribal leaders had gathered to discuss peace in the volatile region.
"It was a huge explosion and left body parts and blood scattered on the ground," said Ramin Khan, whose left leg and face were wounded.
Dr. Hamid Afridy, the area's chief medical officer, said he counted 40 bodies, some with severed limbs and mutilated faces, at the site.

New Day for Pakistan

By Tom PlateLOS ANGELES ― The central nervous system of the Bush administration's ``war on terror" may now be frayed beyond recognition or repair.Tired American soldiers are bogged down in Iraq, whose indigenous politicians cannot get their act together, and where the real al-Qaida terrorists are fewest in number. In Afghanistan, where are there more of the bad guys, the NATO alliance is undermanned and demoralized; European governments are shakier than ever in their resolve to do what it takes. And in Pakistan, where there may be the greatest number of al-Qaida anywhere, the Bush administration's chief ally has just been embarrassingly told to take a hike by his people.The recent Pakistan election must be the most astounding low-turnout landslide in recent memory. Many people were too frightened to vote, fearing retaliation from the government of Pervez Musharraf, the military careerist who tried to repackage himself as the savior of rectitude and integrity.But those who did courageously overcome their fears voted overwhelmingly for almost anyone but the dictator.There are two immediate implications.One is that the general-dictator must stand down immediately ― or allow his position to be watered down dramatically to lame-duck status. As we wrote last September, ``Musharraf must leave not because he is an authoritarian, but because he has lost the confidence of the Pakistanis.'' Now, with the Feb. 18 election, that loss-of-confidence becomes totally official.The second implication is that the Bush administration must do nothing in Pakistan of any consequence. It also needs to do something that it is generally not good at: Be quiet, because everything it has done or said has generally been misconceived and miserable. It put all its eggs in the bountiful basket of the handsome general, and now the eggs have gone rotten.Pakistan has all but blown up in everyone's face ― and it may still even do that. A lot of terrible things could happen, in addition to the unmentionable: terrorist groups getting their paws on the country's nuclear weapons stash. But by this time next year, a new American administration will be in power. Good riddance to the current one. It is hard to imagine that the next one could prove ― whether Democratic or Republican ― as incompetent in Pakistan as the current leadership. It seems as if every step the Bush administration took was off-balance, off-key ― just plain off. But the whole mess is to be inherited (presumably ― seven months is a long time in American politics ― who knows what might happen?) by President John McCain or President Hillary Clinton or President Barack Obama. One of them will need to start thinking about Asian and terror-war options as soon as early November. American foreign policy is in crisis there.In Pakistan, the two main opposition groups say they are prepared to lay down their hatchets and work together in harmony to hammer out a broad coalition government in Parliament. If this can be pulled off, they are to be congratulated. Their country needs national-interest unity above all right now.They, for the moment, are not the enemy, Musharraf is. They must become the solution to Pakistan's problem, not remain party to the customary petty squabbling and the not-so-petty corruption of the past.The late Benazir Bhutto may not have been the second coming of Mother Teresa in the sainthood department. But when an assassin finished her off in December, that vile act blew a symbolic hole in the center of a unified Pakistan. Were she alive today, she would in a Karachi minute become the new government of Pakistan in the post-Musharraf era, and bring to the task an unparalleled sense of history about her own destiny and her country's.But she is dead ― yet suddenly a new kind of Pakistani democracy may have come alive. Let us all hope it will prove real enough for this country to escape the darkness and start developing ― politically as well as economically like a normal nation.UCLA Prof. Tom Plate is a veteran author and journalist.

Allies Rally Round Pakistan's Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — President Pervez Musharraf's allies rallied around him Thursday, challenging the victors in Pakistan's elections to oust him as he prepares to face the hostile new parliament.
Leading the charge against Musharraf — a former army general who cracked down on the opposition, judiciary and media last year — are the parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
The two parties finished first and second in the Feb. 18 parliamentary election. The Pakistan Muslim League-Q, a party loyal to Musharraf, lost heavily.
Musharraf "has been elected president for five years. He will remain president for five years," said Pervez Elahi, a close confidant of Musharraf, who has come under increasing pressure from opponents to step down. He would have been the PML-Q's prime minister had the party won.
Musharraf's stand has raised the prospect of a new political crisis that could spoil Pakistan's return to democracy after eight years of military rule.
The U.S. has continued to back Musharraf because of his sustained support for Washington's war on Taliban and al-Qaida militants, many of whom operate in rugged parts of Pakistan near the Afghan border. The government blamed an al-Qaida-linked militant commander for Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination.
On Wednesday, the parties of Bhutto and Sharif urged Musharraf to quickly convene the National Assembly, the lower house of the country's parliament, so the parties can form a government.
Sharif said the prospective coalition partners have 171 seats out of the 272 in the National Assembly and would soon secure the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution or impeach Musharraf.
In November, Musharraf declared a state of emergency and purged the Supreme Court before it could rule on the disputed legality of his re-election as president a month earlier.
Pro-Musharraf parties have retained a slender majority in the 100-seat Senate, the upper house. But six senators announced this week they were breaking away from the former ruling bloc.
Musharraf suffered another blow when PML-Q general secretary Mushahid Hussain on Wednesday said he would support a move to strip the president of the power to dissolve Pakistan's parliament.
Elahi and party spokesman Tariq Azim said Thursday, however, that Hussain was not speaking for the party.
Musharraf was obliged to use his emergency powers "every time there is any need for it," Azim told The Associated Press. "The party still supports him. He is the stabilizing factor for the country."
He challenged Bhutto's and Sharif's parties to try to amend the constitution to take away Musharraf's power.
"If they do get two-thirds majority it is up to them to bring in any amendment, but they don't have the majority yet," he said. "There are many ifs and buts."

Missile Attack, Possibly by NATO, Kills 8 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Eight suspected Islamic militants, including four men of Middle Eastern origin and two from Central Asia, were killed early Thursday in a triple missile attack on a house used as a training facility in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a security official and residents said.
The missiles appeared to have been launched from territory controlled by NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan, the second deadly aerial strike in a month. Residents said three other occupants of the house were wounded in the strike, in the village of Kalosha in South Waziristan, one of the most restive tribal regions.
The security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job, said the dead had belonged to a little-known group affiliated with Al Qaeda, working under the name Abu Hamza.
Local residents said they had heard three loud explosions about 2 a.m. that destroyed the house. They said the three wounded occupants were from Turkmenistan.
They also said the house had belonged to Shero Wazir, an Ahmadzai Wazir tribesman who had rented it to an unidentified man of Arab nationality. They said they thought the launching site might have been an American NATO base in Machi Dat, just across the border in Afghanistan.
NATO officials in Afghanistan said they had no information about the attack. But this would not be the first time American-led NATO forces had launched missiles aimed at Qaeda and Taliban targets on the Pakistan side.
A senior Qaeda commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, was reportedly killed by a Predator missile in Mirali, North Waziristan, on Jan. 29. The Pakistan government has yet to officially confirm his death.
An official of the political administration of the tribal areas confirmed eight deaths in the Thursday attack, but did not identify any victims by name. He said four Arabs, two Turkmens and two Pakistani militants from Punjab Province had been killed, but others said it was difficult to know precisely who died.
The security official said the bodies were charred beyond recognition. They were buried at a graveyard in Kalosha. He said the destroyed house had been used as a training facility.
A spokesman for Maulvi Nazir, a local militant commander, denied that Arabs or Turkmens were killed in the attack, asserting instead that Afghans had died.
“They were common Afghans and have been living in the area for the last few years,” the spokesman said.

Sharif, Zardari Say They Have Majority in Pakistan's Parliament

Feb. 28 -- Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's opposition leaders, said their parties have a majority of newly elected members in Parliament after this month's ballot and will form a government to restore democracy.
``The nation has given its verdict,'' Sharif, who leads the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz, said at a meeting with Zardari in Islamabad yesterday, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.
``Democracy is the best revenge,'' said Zardari, citing a remark made by his wife Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who was assassinated Dec. 27. Zardari took over as leader of her party. The Awami National Party is also a member of the alliance.
The parties are calling on President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in 1999, to resign after the defeat of his supporters in the Feb. 18 election. The new government will restore Pakistan's 1973 Constitution and reinstate judges fired under Musharraf's state of emergency decree in November, Sharif said.
They said they have at least 171 newly elected members. Voters were choosing 272 lawmakers for the 342-member Parliament. The remaining seats will be filled by women and minorities selected by lawmakers at a later date.
The three parties have a two-thirds majority of the announced election results for the assembly and seat numbers are ``expected to increase in the future,'' Sharif said.
The PPP won the most seats by a single party. The Awami National Party ousted pro-Taliban religious parties in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
Steer the Country
The three parties will work together to steer the country through the crisis it is facing, Zardari, 51, said after the meeting, according to APP.
``Pakistan stands on the verge of disaster, but also on the verge of opportunity'' for democracy and stability, he said. The Pakistani people must ``struggle for a single purpose, the sovereignty of Parliament.''
There must be no delay in convening the new National Assembly, APP cited Sharif, 58, as saying.
Musharraf, 64, imposed emergency rule for six weeks on Nov. 3 and fired about 60 judges, days before the Supreme Court was due to rule on the legitimacy of him securing a second five-year term as president. He declared the state of emergency following months of demonstrations against his rule.
The election campaign was marred by terrorist attacks including the killing of Bhutto.
Musharraf told the Wall Street Journal last week he isn't considering resigning or retiring and wants to help bring about a democratic government in Pakistan.
President George W. Bush continues to back Musharraf ``for all the work that he's done to help us in counterterrorism,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Feb. 25 in Washington.
The Pakistani leader has met U.S. calls to step down as army chief, lift a state of emergency and hold free and fair elections, Perino said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighebloomberg.net.

Pakistan Lifts Ban on YouTube

Pakistan has lifted the ban on popular video-sharing Web site, YouTube -- after removal of the allegedly "blasphemous" movie clips from the Web site. Pakistan had banned YouTube Friday over "anti-Islamic" movie clips posted by users on the site. The clips were based on an upcoming movie by Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilder, who'd previously said that his movie portrays Islam as a fascist religion, and as prone to inciting violence -- especially against women and homosexuals.
Lawmakers in Pakistan promptly ordered a ban on YouTube, over the movie clips they deemed as "blasphemous". The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued notice to 70-odd Internet Service Providers (ISPs) asking them to ban access to the site. The PTA has now asked these ISPs to lift the ban on YouTube, following removal of the clips considered 'anti-Islam'. Incidentally, several other videos featuring Geert Wilders are still kept visible to Pak Internet users; the "totally anti-Quranic... very blasphemous" clip has been removed, the Associated Press (AP) quoted spokesperson for the PTA, Nabiha Mahmood, as saying. She further said that the clip simply promoted Wilder's upcoming movie without giving further details on content. Meanwhile, following the Pak ban on YouTube, the Web has been abuzz with reports of how, in imposing the ban, Pakistan mistakenly caused a global YouTube outage for several hours over the weekend. It is learnt that Pak ISPs hijacked the Web servers of YouTube to block access to the site within Pakistan. But that in doing so, details of the hijack leaked out into the wider Internet, causing YouTube to be blocked -- not only in Pakistan but also across the globe -- for long hours on Sunday. During the time that the Pak ban on YouTube lasted, everyone (even outside Pakistan) who tried to access YouTube ended up getting redirected to a virtual Black hole. Stung by all this criticism, Mahmood tried to explain that the Pakistani regulator was not responsible for the 'technical glitches' that might have led to the global outage. That, it wasn't clear how those occurred. Meanwhile, AP quoted Abdullah Riar, Pakistani Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications as saying, "We are already in the spotlight on the issue of intolerance and extremism and terrorism, and this (read: ban) is something that somebody is doing by design to excite and insinuate Islamic sentiments."

Taliban Want Talks With Pakistan's New Government

Feb. 25 -- Taliban fighters in Pakistan's northwest want talks with the winners of last week's elections and the new government they form to end President Pervez Musharraf's anti-terrorism campaign, Associated Press reported.
``We hope after the government comes into power, they will not make the mistake of continuing the existing policies and will bring peace to the people of the tribal areas,'' AP cited Maulvi Umar, a Tehirk-e-Taliban group spokesman, as saying. ``We want peace and are looking for dialogue with those who got elected.''
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari, whose parties won the most seats in the elections, last week agreed to set aside decades of rivalry to challenge Musharraf's military-backed rule.
Musharraf deployed more than 80,000 soldiers to crush the Islamic insurgency in the mountainous northwest region, where U.S. officials have said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding. Musharraf's government blamed Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud for the Dec. 27 killing of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at

Pakistan's two biggest parties should ally-poll

By David FoxISLAMABAD, Feb 23 (Reuters) - An opinion poll on Saturday showed an alliance between the two biggest groups opposed to President Pervez Musharraf was the preferred choice of Pakistan's voters.Monday's election left none of Pakistan's parties with a majority in the National Assembly and negotiations are continuing between rivals keen to forge a coalition big enough to hold power in the 342-seat parliament.The fate of Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999 and is a key U.S. ally in its war on terror, could depend on what kind of coalition emerges. His supporters, with 39 seats, could still have a say.Provisional results have been announced for all but 10 seats and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leads with 87 followed by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), otherwise known as the PML-N or Nawaz League, with 67.The Gallup poll suggested an alliance between these two was the preferred choice of supporters. Forty percent of PPP voters said the PML-N was their second choice and 45 percent vice versa.Some 35 percent of PPP voters and 25 percent of PML-N voters declined to give a second preference in the poll, held on the day of the election. Gallup did not say how big its sample was.For much of last year an alliance between the PPP and PML-N seemed unlikely.The PPP was headed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, until she was assassinated on Dec. 27 when leaving a rally, and a deal with Musharraf over her return from years of exile looked likely to extend into a political alliance.Under that scenario the PML-N party led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister deposed and exiled by Musharraf after a coup in 1999, looked likely to be the main opposition bloc.In the aftermath of Bhutto's assassination and Monday's election, a PPP/PML-N alliance now looks like "the impossible has come to pass", as Dawn newspaper described it in an editorial on Saturday.If they forge a coalition, it will be the first time in Pakistan's history the two main parties have come together.In one early sign of cooperation -- and one that spells trouble for Musharraf -- the PPP and PML-N have agreed in principle to restore judges Musharraf fired when he imposed emergency rule in November.The judges, if reinstated, can be expected to take up the question of the eligibility of Musharraf to stand for re-election as president while still army chief in October. They had been expected to rule against Musharraf when he imposed the emergency.On Saturday party elders from across the political divide were meeting separately and with their party faithful to decide the next steps.The Election Commission is expected to issue official results by March 1, after which Musharraf is expected to convene an inaugural session of the National Assembly.When that is may depend on whether there is a government-in-waiting because the president has to invite the member commanding the confidence of the majority to become prime minister. (Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Robert Woodward)

Pakistan’s New Prime Minister?

As the victors of Monday’s Pakistani elections continued to discuss who would lead their coalition in parliament, party insiders tell NEWSWEEK that the choice will most likely be veteran politician Makhdoom Amin Fahim. "It's almost a done deal," says an official from the Pakistan People's Party who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the information. The PPP, led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto until her assassination in late December, won the most seats in the national assembly and thus has the prerogative to name the premier. Another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whose party ran second, has agreed to support the choice.

Fahim, 68, almost became prime minister in 2002. Only his loyalty to Bhutto kept him from running the government. Back then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was scrambling to find coalition partners to bolster his own jerry-built party. He offered the top job to Fahim, who then as now was vice chairman of the PPP, but only under the condition that Fahim would not take direction from Bhutto, who was in exile. Fahim flatly refused. During her nine long years abroad, Bhutto knew she could rely on her fellow landowner from southern Sindh Province to be a trusted adviser and executor of her plans on the ground. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is now the PPP's co-chairman, is counting on the same fidelity.

Fahim is renowned for his complete lack of charisma. But he has a reputation for being able to work with others and get things done. And most important for both Zardari and Sharif, Fahim is not personally ambitious. If he were he would have succumbed to the many offers and veiled threats over the years to join Musharraf. Fahim says he has no regrets. He is a complex, well-rounded man of seemingly contradictory traits. The scion of a landed feudal family, his father was a Sufi spiritual leader (the "pir of Hala") and one of the founders in 1969 of the populist PPP, along with Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Although a landed gentleman and a locally venerated "pir," or Sufi saint (an inherited mantle), Fahim is a totally secular, moderate, pragmatic social democrat as well as a mystic poet. He has a squeaky-clean reputation, which is unusual for a Pakistani politician.

Zardari cannot say the same thing. Nicknamed "Mr. Ten Percent" for the alleged kickbacks he received while Bhutto was in power, he served eight years in jail on corruption charges. (He denies the charges and has not been convicted.) He did not run for the assembly himself, preferring to remain abroad and look after the children while his wife campaigned and led the party. And at least for now he's made it clear that he does not want to be prime minister. Party insiders say he realizes he could be too divisive a figure. But he can rest assured that Fahim will follow the party line that Zardari will largely lay down. Perhaps as important an asset as Fahim's personal loyalty and political savvy is the fact that he is widely trusted by "the establishment," the name Pakistanis give to the powerful nexus of the military, top bureaucrats and influential businessmen. The same cannot be said for Zardari.

Fahim is doubtless comfortable with the fact that he won't be calling the shots and that he may not last all of the national assembly's five-year tenure. He knows he may be serving largely to keep the seat warm for Zardari, who may want to replace him once the coalition is more firmly established. Zardari is certain to run for, and win, an assembly seat in a by-election in the next few months, putting him in a position to become prime minister.

The choice of Fahim is largely good news for Washington. He is pro-West and favors close military and economic ties with the United States. But just like Zardari and Sharif and a vast majority of Pakistanis, he believes that Pakistan has to recalibrate its relationship with Washington and its strategy of confronting extremists in the lawless tribal areas. The new civilian leadership has expressed greater interest in a diplomatic approach to tribal leaders, well aware that Musharraf's military strategy along the border is widely thought of as an American imposition.

Thus far Zardari has shown less appetite for confronting Musharraf directly than Sharif has. Their coalition lacks the two-thirds majority needed to impeach the president. But they have agreed to let the parliament decide whether to restore the supreme court justices dismissed by Musharraf last fall when he imposed a state of emergency; most observers expect that the restored judges would declare that Musharraf's re-election, which occurred under the state of emergency, was illegal. Knowing the stakes, Musharraf is in no hurry to convene parliament. He's expected to drag his feet for the next two to three weeks or more in the hope of engineering some divide in the freshly minted coalition. Meanwhile Zardari, Sharif and Fahim will be doing everything they can to fend off any moves to destabilize them.

Pakistan's Opposition Unites Against President Pervez Musharraf

Feb. 22 -- Pakistan's two main opposition parties, which have never worked together in the nation's 60- year existence, have united in their rejection of President Pervez Musharraf's rule.
Now, they must get down to the work of fixing power shortages, reining in inflation and stopping terrorist attacks along the Afghan border that have made Pakistan an international byword for insecurity.
``The first challenge for both of them will be to stay together,'' said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, associate professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. ``So far only one agenda has bound them together, which is opposing Musharraf. The immediate challenges will be on the economic and foreign policy front.''
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, 58, and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari, 51, late yesterday said they will support each other, setting aside decades of political rivalry to challenge Musharraf's military-backed rule.
``We plan to be in parliament together, to strengthen democracy together and to build a stronger Pakistan together,'' Zardari, husband of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, told a joint news conference in the capital, Islamabad.
Sharif said he respected the PPP's mandate and its right to form a government. ``We will not cause any problems to the government,'' said Sharif, who returned from seven years in exile to contest the election. ``We will allow it to complete its five years.''
Manage Economy
The new government will have to manage an economy where rising food prices and power shortages have curbed growth. The alliance will be key for U.S. foreign policy in the region, as the Bush administration has pumped $10 billion into Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to fund military operations against the militant Islamic Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The country's two most popular political groups were bitter rivals when Sharif and Bhutto alternated power four times between 1988 and 1999. The group will need to ally with other political organizations to secure the two-thirds majority needed to challenge the legitimacy of Musharraf's rule.
While neither mentioned the possibility of impeaching Musharraf, Sharif said the president must resign. Zardari was less specific: ``The mandate of the people is clear,'' he said.
Dissatisfaction with Musharraf's steering of the economy was one of the biggest reasons why voters opposed his party in elections Feb. 18, according to polls before the vote. With borrowing costs at a six-year high the new government may have to spend on subsidies to meet voter demands to cut fuel and food costs.
``The chance is the new coalition government will go by impulse and will take populist decisions,'' said Sakib Sherani, chief economist at ABN Amro Bank Pakistan in Karachi. ``You have got high and accelerating inflation and runaway borrowing by the government from the central bank.''
Inflation Accelerated
Inflation accelerated the most in 33 months in January on higher wheat flour prices, pushed up by shortages caused by hoarding before the elections and smuggling of grain to neighboring Afghanistan. Prices have risen more than 20 percent since November in Pakistan, the world's sixth-largest grain consumer.
Textile makers, the drivers of 60 percent of the country's exports, are losing overseas orders to rivals in India and China after month-long power and natural gas cuts shut down most factories, disrupting production.
The shortage of energy supplies had caused a $1 billion loss of exports by the end of January, according to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association. More than 3,000 spinning and weaving factories have closed, said Anis-ulhaq, secretary of the textile maker's group.
Military Coup
Sharif said the provision Musharraf had lawmakers insert into the constitution that give him the power to dissolve the Parliament will be ``taken care of.'' He said the new Parliament will restore the 1973 constitution, which doesn't include such powers.
The party leaders also said they will find common ground in deciding what to do about former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other Supreme Court judges who were sacked and detained by Musharraf because he feared they would declare his continued rule illegal.
Sharif yesterday joined lawyers demonstrating outside the compound in Islamabad where Chaudhry is under house arrest. Zardari has previously voiced his support for an independent judiciary without calling for the justices' reinstatement.
``In principle there is no disagreement on the restoration of the judges,'' said Sharif. ``We will work out the modalities in the parliament.''
Sharif last led Pakistan in 1999 before he was ousted by Musharraf in a military coup. Zardari has little political experience, having only taken over running the PPP when his wife was assassinated on Dec. 27.
The PPP won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, without securing enough to form a government on its own. Zardari earlier said he'd work with the Awami National Party, which ousted pro-Taliban religious parties in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
President George W. Bush said he hoped the new government would be an ally for the U.S. in the fight against extremists. Zardari on Feb. 20 said the majority of Pakistanis opposed the ``Talibanization'' of the South Asian nation after supporters of the Islamic group were routed in the elections.
``Between my party and his we have the solutions,'' Zardari said. ``We have to have a political solution to all Pakistan's problems.''

Sharif, Zardari, Ex-Rivals, Pursue Pakistan Coalition

Feb. 20 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. Musharraf, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, said he plans to stay in office.
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 his interview with the Wall Street Journal.
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.
``At the end of the day, we hope that they continue to work with us as partners in counter-terrorism,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President George W. Bush to Ghana. ``The threat from extremists is just as grave and very immediate for the people of Pakistan.''
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.
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.
Twice Premier
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, seen as a left-wing group, has its stronghold in the southern province of Sindh and also wins seats in the other three provinces. 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.
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.
Meetings Planned
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.

Pakistan Zinda bad