The Pakistani army must stay out of politics, the party of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said, as it worked to build a government that can strip its former military president of much of his power.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, meanwhile, urged the victors of the Feb. 18 elections to "stop politicking and move toward forming a government." He said parliament would be convened within a week and a half.
"I promise that if peace is maintained, I will support whichever coalition is formed," he said on Friday.
Bhutto's party won most seats in the elections, that were supposed to return Pakistan to democracy after eight years of military rule. Musharraf's allies fared badly.
Negotiations are still under way on forming a coalition government but the winning parties appear on a collision course with the former army strongman, which could herald fresh turmoil in a country under attack from Islamic militants.
During his tenure, Musharraf entrenched the military's say in policymaking.
He imposed de facto martial law last year in order to secure a new five-year presidential term for himself -- with the public backing of his fellow generals.
A spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party welcomed a pledge on Thursday from Musharraf's successor as army chief to "stay out of the political process."
But he said the value of that commitment "lies in how sincerely and effectively it is implemented."
"While hoping that the army would stay out of politics, the party [will] watch keenly whether it really stays out," spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.
Generals have governed Pakistan for more than half of its turbulent 60-year history.
Coup leaders like Musharraf insist that they stepped in to save the country from incompetent civilian governments. But they have proved reluctant to relinquish control.
Musharraf said after his tearful retirement as army chief in November that his hand-picked successor, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, would still owe him loyalty.
But Kayani has moved to distance the army from politics and opposition warnings that the military's intelligence agencies would rig last month's parliamentary vote to ensure victory for the unpopular president's allies proved hollow.
In a sign of Musharraf's diminished political authority and the growing clout of the mainstream opposition parties, seven lawmakers who contested the election as independents have since joined Bhutto's party, lifting its strength to 120, the election commission said.
Four more independents have lined up with Nawaz Sharif, an arch enemy of Musharraf since the former general ousted his government in a 1999 coup, giving him 90 seats.
Voters returned just 51 lawmakers from the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q to the 342-seat National Assembly, or lower house of parliament.
Eleven seats are yet to be filled, mainly because of litigation and the deaths of candidates, including Bhutto, who was assassinated in a suicide attack in December.
The two largest parties are expected to form a loose coalition government.
They lack the two-thirds majority needed in both the upper and lower houses of parliament to impeach Musharraf.
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