ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN'S two main opposition parties agreed on Thursday to form a coalition government after winning elections, dealing a major blow to President Pervez Musharraf's hopes of political survival.

The widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif said they would 'strengthen Pakistan together' after they ousted Mr Musharraf's allies in Monday's parliamentary polls.

'We have agreed on a common agenda. We will work together to form the government in the centre and in the provinces,' Mr Sharif told a joint news conference after talks with Ms Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari.

'In principle, we have agreed to stay together. We intend to strengthen Pakistan together,' said Mr Zardari, whose Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is set to be the biggest party in the new parliament, followed by Sharif's.

He said there were still 'a lot of grounds to cover' between the two parties. Questions remain over whether the coalition will seek Mr Musharraf's immediate ouster, and about who would serve as premier.

Mr Zardari has provisionally ruled himself out and neither he nor Mr Sharif is eligible because they are not MPs. Both, though, could contest by-elections due in the coming months.

But Mr Sharif said they had overcome their differences over his demands for the immediate restoration of Pakistan's chief justice, whom Musharraf sacked in November, saying they would work on the issue in parliament.

First act of business

The coalition's first move in government would be to seek a UN investigation 'into the assassination of our leader Benazir Bhutto' in a suicide attack in December, Mr Zardari said.

The announcement of the coalition comes despite what party officials said were efforts by Mr Musharraf to try to divide Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif and persuade Ms Bhutto's husband to form a coalition with the president's allies.

Mr Sharif earlier told hundreds of protesting lawyers outside deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's Islamabad home - where the judge remains under house arrest - that Mr Musharraf's rule was 'illegal and unconstitutional.'

Police fired tear gas at lawyers calling for the restoration of Chaudhry in the southern city of Karachi. Thousands more demonstrated elsewhere.

Chaudhry, who was sacked by Mr Musharraf under emergency rule in November, said in a telephone address to the lawyers in Karachi that there was no constitutional hurdle to judges getting their jobs back.

'I was deposed by an executive order and I can be restored by an executive order. There is no need of two-thirds majority of the parliament,' said Mr Chaudhry.

Overturn presidency

If Mr Chaudhry gets his job back he could overturn Mr Musharraf's controversial victory in a presidential election in October and oust him as president.

Mr Musharraf has rejected calls to quit in the wake of his allies' electoral defeat. He has been backed for most of his time in office by the United States as a key ally against Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

The embattled leader, who stepped down as army chief late last year, extended an offer of cooperation to his rivals on Wednesday, calling for a 'harmonious coalition' after the polls.

Mr Zardari earlier met the leader of a small ethnic Pashtun secular grouping, the Awami National Party (ANP), which defeated hardline Islamic parties in the country's insurgency-hit northwest.

ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan said he and Mr Zardari had agreed 'in principle to go together for supremacy of democracy' but said they had not yet formally agreed to join the coalition.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP and Sharif's party had a combined total of 153 seats, the election commission said. The former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and its allies together had 58. -- AFP

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