Pakistan's Rival Opposition Parties Agree to Form Governing Coalition

"The moment for an honorable and graceful exit is long past," said Rifaat Hussain, a Pakistani defense analyst, speaking from Sri Lanka. "Now, unless he can manage to cause a rift in the opposition, he will either have to quit eventually under the pressure of street agitation by the lawyers, or leave office under the threat of impeachment by the new Parliament."

On Thursday, lawyers' groups held rallies in several cities, demanding Musharraf's resignation and the restoration of judges he dismissed -- the issue that sparked much of the recent unrest. The lawyers have threatened mass protests next month if he does not reinstate the fired judges.

Rashid Qureshi, a retired army general and Musharraf's spokesman, said the president wants a smooth and successful transition to civilian rule. In an interview Thursday, he said Musharraf "wants to avoid confrontation" with the opposition parties and will gradually "ease himself out" of politics "in a peaceful and civil manner."

But Qureshi said Musharraf would not step down under pressure.

Neither Sharif nor Zardari would say whether they have agreed on a candidate for prime minister, and their overall political agenda remained short of details.

But their agreement will likely lead to the reinstatement of Pakistan's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, whom Musharraf fired and placed under house arrest last year. Chaudhry was one of about 60 judges Musharraf fired after declaring a state of emergency in November.

Although neither Sharif nor Zardari mentioned Chaudhry specifically, they said they have agreed to work through parliamentary channels to reinstate those judges and restore the judiciary's independence.

The two men spoke about their parties' partnership as they sat on throne-like chairs beneath a portrait of Bhutto and Pakistan's founding leader, Muhammed Ali Jinnah. The mood was upbeat as Sharif, dressed in a traditional Pakistani salwar-kameez and dark vest, laughed and joked with Zardari, who looked relaxed in his dark suit and tie. Their opposing styles were on display in other ways, too.

Hours before meeting Zardari for the first time since the elections, Sharif joined a protest by lawyers near Chaudhry's home in Islamabad. In a fiery impromptu speech, Sharif, who was barred from running for a seat in Parliament, vowed to deliver on his party's promise to restore Chaudhry to the bench.

By contrast, Zardari has been more reserved in his statements, saying Wednesday that the decision to reinstate the ousted judges rests with Parliament.

Many Pakistani analysts agree that Zardari's more conservative stance cost the Pakistan People's Party support in the elections, particularly in the central province of Punjab, where more than half the nation's voters reside. Any loss for Zardari's party, also known here as the PPP, likely translated into more seats for Sharif's party and made their unlikely partnership more of a political necessity.

Their rivalry dates to the 1990s, a decade of abrupt power shifts in which the Pakistan People's Party under Benazir Bhutto and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League each held power twice before being dismissed or overthrown.