& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Sharif urges Musharraf to quit after polls drubbing

AFP, Lahore
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif called on Pervez Musharraf ro step down yesterday alter the Pakistani president's allies conceded defeat in a crucial parlia-, mentary election.
Nawaz Sharif pledged yesterday to work with other opposition groups including the party of slain Benazir Bhutto after elections to "rid Pakistan of dictatorshipforever
Sharif, the man ousted by President Pervez Musharraf in a coup in 1999, said he had spoken with Benazir Bhutto's widower and would meet him later this week, after the ruling party conceded defeat in Monday's parliamentary poll.
"Musharraf has said he would quit when people tell him. People have now given their verdict," Sharif told a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, his political power base.
"We will work with all democratic forces, all those who secured victory. I want to congratulate them and those who partici-
pated as opposition parties," Sharif told a news conference.
1 invite them all to come and sit together to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever," he said.
Asked about the formation of a government after the elections, he said. "I had a conversation with Asif Ali Zardari (Bhutto's widower) today and we will be meeting the day after tomorrow in Islamabad."
He said he also asked the leader of the secular nationalist Awami National Party, which secured several seats in Pakistan's conservative northwest. to meet him in the capital.
Unofficial preliminary results from the elections showed the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q being trounced. Sharif's faction, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, was in second place behind Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.
Appearing relaxed and joking with reporters, Sharif also pledged to reappoint several top judges sacked by Musharraf under a state of emergency in November.
"All illegal and unconstitutional steps by Musharraf on November 3, those have to be rolled back," Sharif said.
"We will follow democracy, rule of law. supremacy of the constitution and the independence and restoration of the judiciary. These are our targets," he said.
Sharif also said the "role of the army in politics should be abandoned."
Musharraf imposed emergency rule last year to force through his controversial reelection as president while still chief of the army.
The emergency was lifted in December, but the country's deposed chief justice and several other judges and senior lawyers remained officially under house arrest.
Meanwhile, a detained Pakistan lawyer opposed to President Pervez Musharraf called on the beleaguered former general to quit Tuesday after the ruling party conceded defeat in key elections.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a former minister, has been under detention
since Musharraf imposed a state of emergency on November 3. sacking the chief justice and other judges to clear legal obstacles to his second presidential term.
"He is the most hated man in the country and he must resign, there is no other way. He has to resign," Ahsan told AFP at his residence in the eastern city of Lahore where he has been kept under house arrest.
Ahsan, who led deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's legal fight against his suspension by Musharraf in March 2007, also urged him to restore the sacked members of the judiciary.
"If they are not reinstated by the 9th of March then we will march on Islamabad, the lawyers and the judges,” he said.
Ahsan said that while he had not officially been freed from house arrest following the elections, he expected to be soon, noting that on Tuesday his jailers did not show up to his residence and his phones were reconnected.