Pakistan's coalition builders leave Musharraf isolated

ISLAMABAD-Pakistan's opposition election winners were trying to forge a coalition on Friday, raising the prospect of a government intent on forcing U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf from power.Leaders of the two parties that won the election, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML-N, vowed on Thursday to work together to form a government but said they still had details to work out.The main party backing the unpopular Musharraf was dealt a stunning defeat in Monday's general election, leaving the president, one of Washington's top Muslim allies against al Qaeda, vulnerable to a hostile parliament."I don't see any problems in them forming a coalition," said political analyst and academic Rasul Baksh Rais."They have realized that by working together they can put Pakistan back on a democratic line."Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew in 1999 and whose PML-N came second in the vote, has demanded the unpopular president step down. But since the election, Musharraf has said he was not ready to resign.U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has urged the next government to work with Musharraf and says Washington needs Pakistan-which borders Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting Islamist militants-as an ally.Sharif met Asif Ali Zardari, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's widower and leader of her PPP since her murder on December 27, in Islamabad on Thursday evening for their first face-to-face talks since the election...
To read more go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL25056920080222
As in the days of Noah...