Pakistan rivals form alliance against army rule

December 4, 2000
Web posted at: 6:52 AM HKT (2252 GMT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -- Pakistan's bitter political rivals formally joined on Sunday in a new alliance that vowed a peaceful struggle against military rule.

The 18-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) brings together the country's two main political parties -- the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of jailed ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The ARD, which replaces the PPP-led Grand Democratic Alliance after admitting the PML, demanded immediate elections and pledged to deny any political role to the military, which has ruled for about half of Pakistan's 53-year life.

A joint statement issued after a meeting of the ARD parties said that "free, fair and impartial elections (should) be immediately held...under a caretaker government of national consensus to restore democracy and transfer power to the elected representatives of the people without conditions and strings."

It said the alliance parties would "coordinate, mobilise, organise and struggle together through peaceful means for the restoration of democracy at the earliest by forming the ARD and framing its rules."

Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who toppled Sharif in a bloodless army coup in October last year, has promised to hold elections by October 2002 within a three-year deadline set by the country's Supreme Court.

But he has said he would create a new political leadership and deny any political role to both Bhutto and Sharif, whom he accuses of corruption.

Sharif and Bhutto, who deny the charges against them, bitterly opposed each other during their short two short-lived prime ministerial terms each after the 11-year rule of previous military ruler General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq and are accused of seeking military support against each other.

The ARD statement pledged the component parties "not to repeat the mistakes of the past" and "not to allow any political role to the armed forces except in the defence of the geographical boundaries."

The alliance, headed by veteran politician Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, came about amid protests from both sides of what has been an acrimonious political divide that marked civilian rule after General Zia died in an unexplained air crash in August 1988.

Some small political groups quit the PPP-led GDA last month and some prominent former PML figures, including Zia's son Ejaz-ul-Haq and Sharif's former minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, refused to ally with the PPP.

Last May, the Supreme Court upheld Musharraf's October 12, 1999 coup and allowed him to amend the country's constitution by decree "for the good of the people," but gave him three years to complete his reforms and hold elections.

But Pakistan's major political parties say the three-year period was too long and that only an elected political government can take Pakistan out of an economic crisis it is facing and what they call an international diplomatic isolation.

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