Pakistan coalition agrees to expel Musharraf!

LAHORE, Pakistan - May 28, 2008 - Pakistan's ruling coalition has agreed to expel U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf from power, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday.

Sharif said the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, had agreed in talks on Tuesday to oust Musharraf in the wake of the coalition's victory in February elections.

"I have spoken with Mr. Zardari that we should throw him out to respect the mandate of the people of Pakistan, and he agreed yesterday to do so," Sharif told a meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear tests.

Sharif, the man ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999, said voters had given a "clear verdict" against Musharraf in the elections.

"Musharraf did not fulfill his promise to quit the presidency if people did not vote for his party," he told the charged crowd in the eastern city of Lahore.

Sharif's comments come amid divisions in the coalition over how to deal with Musharraf and over the restoration of top judges sacked by the president under emergency rule in November.

Zardari and Sharif met in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss a package of constitutional amendments to clip Musharraf's wings, but both sides are still finalizing details.

Earlier this month, nine ministers from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party quit the cabinet, which is dominated by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

There was no immediate comment from the PPP. Zardari last week described Musharraf in a television interview as a "relic of the past" but did not make an outright call for his resignation.

Musharraf's spokesman earlier on Wednesday denied rumors sweeping the country's stock market that Musharraf had resigned.

"It is absolute nonsense, there is no such thing, there is no thing like this under any sort of consideration," spokesman Rashid Qureshi told Dawn News television.

Sharif, however, called for Musharraf to be tried for sedition.

"There is no need to give safe exit to that man (Musharraf). He should be given same punishment which traitors deserve under the law and the constitution," Sharif said amid shouts of "Hang Musharraf, hang Musharraf."

The proposed constitutional package, which would require a two-thirds majority in parliament for approval, was launched by Zardari last week.