Musharraf not a legitimate President: Sharif

“Under the circumstances, we do not accept him as a legitimate President,” said Sharif, who returned from exile in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, eight years after Musharraf, then army chief, ousted him in a bloodless coup.

“The judiciary of Nov. 2 must be restored,” said Sharif, an industrialist-turned-politician who spoke in Lahore, his power base.

“That judiciary was thrown out by Mr Musharraf just for personal reasons,” he said. “Whatever decision that judiciary gives on his re-election that would be a decision which would carry legitimacy and credibility.”

Musharraf imposed Emergency rule and suspended the constitution on Nov. 3 to purge a Supreme Court he feared would rule against his October re-election by legislators because he was then still serving as army chief.

Some of those judges are still under house arrest.

In his inauguration address on Thursday Musharraf did not say if he would lift the Emergency before a Jan. 8 general election. Opponents say the vote cannot be free and fair if held with Emergency powers in place.

Sharif is an unlikely champion of the judiciary. During his second term as Prime Minister his party activists stormed the Supreme Court in 1997 to force the chief justice from office.

About 300 lawyers battled police with bricks and bottles in Lahore on Thursday to protest as Musharraf was sworn in. They called on Sharif to boycott January’s election.

Sharif’s party is meeting other opposition groups to decide whether or not to shun the poll and isolate Musharraf.

Sharif said his arch rival, Benazir Bhutto, also recently returned from years in exile, would have to join the boycott for it to work.

“Personally, I think it has to be a unanimous boycott, so that it turns out to be a real boycott,” said Sharif, who drew widespread international condemnation in 1998 when he oversaw nuclear tests to parry those of arch-foe India.

He is still waiting to see if he will be barred from running for office by criminal convictions he says were politically motivated — quite apart from a law Musharraf passed imposing a two-term Prime Ministerial limit, which for now excludes both Sharif and Bhutto.

“If they’ve already decided to turn down my papers, then I can do nothing,” he said. “There are no courts where I can go to, there is no judiciary which can address my grievances.”

Sharif’s appeal is largely to conservative, religious sections of the electorate. While he is regarded as a moderate he is also seen as a politician more likely to appease radical Islamists than either Bhutto or Musharraf.

Sharif’s return was largely due to the insistence of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan’s key Muslim ally, whereas Bhutto courted the support of the United States before her return.