ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The two main Pakistani opposition parties announced Thursday that they would work to form a coalition government, after dealing the party of President Pervez Musharraf a bruising defeat in this week’s elections.
But it was unclear whether the two would jointly seek to oust Musharraf in the wake of Monday’s vote, which was widely viewed as a devastating verdict on his performance as Pakistan’s leader.
Neither the Pakistan People’s Party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto nor the Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, won enough votes to govern on its own. But together they have a comfortable parliamentary majority.
The two parties appeared ready to paper over differences, at least for the time being, in order to move to assemble a governing coalition. But more talks lie ahead.
Details of the tentative accord between the two sides remained unclear.
“In principle, we have agreed to stay together,” Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who leads her party, told a news conference in Islamabad.
“We have to support each other,” said Sharif, seated beside him.
According to Sharif, the two sides agreed that dozens of judges fired late last year by Musharraf should be reinstated. The two opposition leaders also left ambiguous whether they would push for the impeachment of Musharraf, who has been considered a crucial U.S. ally despite his deep unpopularity at home.
