Musharraf Vows Not to Resign

President Pervez Musharraf today pledged to complete his five-year term in defiance of opposition demands that he step down, setting the stage for a confrontation with the incoming government.

"We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan," the retired general told the Wall Street Journal, vowing to remain in office until 2012.

Musharraf's authority has been severely weakened by the crushing defeat of his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party in Monday's general election. With all votes counted the party won just 42 of 268 directly elected seats.

Opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari are due to begin cobbling together a coalition government in Islamabad later today.

Sharif campaigned on a platform of ousting Musharraf, but Zardari has been more coy, leaving the door open to possible cooperation.

The US wants the opposition to work with Musharraf. After meeting the president yesterday, senator Joe Biden, a powerful Washington politician, said the former general appeared resigned to a ceremonial role.

"To me it appears more about respect than power," he said.

The rout claimed a number of powerful political scalps, including Musharraf confidante Sheik Rashid Ahmed, rumored to have left the country within hours of defeat, and back room powerbroker Chaudhry Shujat Hussain.

"All the King's men, gone!" proclaimed the headline in the Daily Times as jubilant voters danced in the streets, sang and fired celebratory bursts of gunfire into the air.

Analysts were divided over Musharraf's prospects. "It turned out to be a referendum on Musharraf," said Irfan Husain. "I don't give him more than a few months, unless there is pressure from the US."

Others said the situation was less dire for the president. "Does [the situation] imply that he has been left with no option but to step down? Perhaps not - even certainly not - in the immediate future," wrote Zaffar Abbas in today's Dawn.

The focus now is on power-sharing talks between the election's two big winners - the Pakistan People's Party of murdered opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, which polled the most seats, and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N), which came a close second. Bhutto's widower, Zardari, leads the PPP.

Neither party has an outright majority but together could easily form a government. The question is on which terms.

Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, ran a campaign dominated by one unflinching demand: the removal of "dictator" Musharraf. Now he has his chance.

Yesterday ecstatic loyalists chanted "The lion is coming again!" outside Sharif's Lahore home, where the bullish opposition leader recalled an old Musharraf promise.

"He would say 'when people want, I will go'. Now the people have given their verdict," he said, vowing to work out a plan to "say goodbye to dictatorship forever".

But Zardari was more guarded, floating the idea of a government of national unity but refusing to rule out cooperation with Musharraf himself. "We will seek support from democratic forces to form the government," he said.

However he squelched suggestions he could work with Musharraf's party - the possibility that offers Musharraf's strongest chance of survival.

The complex power game was welcomed by Pakistanis, who had feared a more chaotic outcome. Pre-poll predictions of violence and vote rigging failed to materialize - although there were localized complaints of irregularities, they were not enough to halt the opposition surge.

There were other signs that the general's authority is faltering. In Lahore, lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, who has been under house arrest for over three months, welcomed the media in to his home.

The firebrand lawyer, who is also a PPP member, said his phone was mysteriously re-connected on Monday night as the results started to stream in. The next morning jail officials assigned to guard him failed to show up for work.

The return of Ahsan heralds another headache for Musharraf. Ahsan vowed to renew the campaign for the release of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who has been under house arrest since November 3, and who Musharraf recently described as "the scum of the earth".

Musharraf told the Wall Street Journal that the re-instatement of Chaudhry was out of the question.

"There is no room for it," he said. "Legally, there's no way this can be done ... It's not a possibility."

The anti-Musharraf results have opened new strains in his relationship with the west. Ahsan said the US and British policies had been an utter failure.

"He is the most despised person in the country. Why should the Americans and Brits continue to put pennies in his cap? I don't understand."

But even the foreign friends are also starting to notch up the pressure. Before the poll, senator Biden warned that the US could slash aid - $10bn (£5m) in mostly military aid since 2002 - if the elections were rigged.

Yesterday he said the election was "an opportunity to move from a policy focused on a personality to one based on an entire people".

The US seems to be priming itself for a post-Musharraf scenario. Over the past month his successor as army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, has been visited by top US military and intelligence officials.

Kayani was perceived as a close Musharraf ally when he was appointed last November, but as Musharraf's popularity fell Kayani pulled the army back from the public glare, ordering soldiers to steer clear of politicians and withdrawing senior officers from sinecures in civilian institutions.

The election's other major upset was the ignominious defeat of the religious parties that have ruled North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces since 2002. In their place came secular Pashtun nationalists and the PPP - a welcome development for western countries hunting Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the area.

But in other parts of the country voters rejected Musharraf for practical reasons, particularly rising food prices and electricity shortages that have afflicted the poor.

Whatever the final outcome, Zardari and Sharif have not been elected due to outstanding criminal charges, so neither can be prime minister.