The leaders of the two major political parties, in an unexpectedly strong show of unity against President Pervez Musharraf, agreed Sunday that they would reinstate judges fired by the president and would seek to strip him of crucial powers. The power sharing deal, announced by Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the largest party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, and Nawaz Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, represented another tough challenge to the already waning authority of Mr. Musharraf, a favorite ally of the Bush administration.
The two men, appearing at a news conference together in the resort area of Bhurban, said they would seek to remove the presidentÂ’s power to dissolve the Pakistani Parliament and his power to appoint the chiefs of the military services. Together, the two parties control just shy of two-thirds of the Parliament after an election last month in which Mr. MusharrafÂ’s party was routed.
The agreement settled key differences that had clouded the post-election atmosphere.
Mr. Zardari, the widower of the slain party leader, Benazir Bhutto, had appeared to waver on Mr. SharifÂ’s insistence that the judges be reinstated.
For his part, Mr. Sharif had indicated that members of his party would not sit in the cabinet while Mr. Musharraf remained in power. But on Sunday, Mr. Sharif, reading in English a “summit declaration” said: “The coalition partners are ready to form the governments and the national and provincial assemblies should be convened immediately.”
Mr. Sharif, who was twice prime minister in the 1990s, said his party would participate in a cabinet that would be dominated by Mr. ZardariÂ’s choices. He appeared to swallow the idea that his cabinet members would have to take the oath of office from President Musharraf, an act that Mr. Sharif had said he would oppose.
Mr. Sharif was overthrown in October 1999 in a bloodless military coup by Mr. Musharraf, who was then an army general, and he holds a particular enmity against the president, who he says should resign. Mr. Musharraf stepped down as the head of the army in December.
One of the biggest threats to Mr. MusharrafÂ’s dwindling authority was SundayÂ’s agreement on restoring the justices, whose dismissal Nov. 3 under an emergency order spawned an energetic anti-Musharraf lawyers movement.
In the last few days, the lawyers had started to mobilize again on behalf of Chief Justice Mohamed Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges, who have remained under house arrest for the last four months after their dismissals.
After Sunday’s joint announcement, a lawyer who is active in the movement, Athar Minallah, said he was now confident the justices, including Mr. Chaudhry, would be reinstated. “I don’t see any hurdle in the restoration of the judges now,” Mr. Minallah said. “It’s a positive day for democracy in this country.”