President Pervez Musharraf under threat as parties seal pact on joint government

President Musharraf is under pressure following the power-sharing deal between the two largest political parties in Pakistan

Pakistan's two largest political parties — which won last month's national elections — sealed a power-sharing deal yesterday, raising doubts about President Musharraf's political future.

The accord between Asif Ali Zardari, the de facto leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and widower of the murdered former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) led by Nawaz Sharif, another former Prime Minister, cleared the way for the formation of an anti-Musharraf government.

“We feel that the country is on the verge of making history,” said Mr Zardari. “This was also the desire of Benazir Bhutto and we also intend to stick to the road to democracy; we are aware of the problems that the country is facing.”

Mr Sharif said that his party would be part of a federal coalition led by the PPP, which is expected to name its prime ministerial candidate this week. The PPP has won 120 seats in the new 342-seat National Assembly, and the Muslim League 90, bringing them close to the two-thirds majority required to strip Mr Musharraf of his powers to dismiss Parliament. The Assembly is expected to meet in ten days' time.

On Saturday Mr Musharraf urged his opponents to put politics aside and concentrate on forming a “stable government and peace in society”.

Mr Zardari said that he had nothing personal against the President but Mr Sharif suggested that he had no future once the new government was formed. “I do not think we have recognised Musharraf's existence; we consider him an unconstitutional and illegal president and would not like our sacrifices that we made during the last eight years to go down the drain,” said Mr Sharif, who was ousted by Mr Musharraf in a military coup in 1999.

Much could depend on who will emerge as the country's new prime minister. The delay in naming the candidates partly reflects the power vacuum left after the assassination in late December of Ms Bhutto. Her husband and son have taken over as co-heads of the PPP but questions remain about whether anyone without her influence and charisma can keep the party united and growing in strength.

Amin Fahim, who is from a wealthy land-owning family in the southern province of Sindh, and Ahmed Mukhtar, who comes from a prominent industrialist family in the Punjab region, Pakistan's most populous province, are the leading candidates for the post. Both are known for their pro-Western and liberal political views.

The prime minister will have to bring the PPP's internal factions together as well as work with coalition partners in the new government. Mr Fahim, 66, was initially considered the main contender for the post but his appeal waned after it emerged that he had met Mr Musharraf without informing the party leadership.

Mr Mukhtar, 61, who was Commerce Minister in a previous Bhutto government, has emerged as a candidate in the past few days after the PPP leadership indicated that it was considering picking someone from Punjab province, the main bastion of political power in Pakistan.

The two parties have promised to restore the Chief Justice and other judges, dismissed by President Musharraf in November under emergency rule, within 30 days of the new Parliament's formation.

Any such resolution would bring the new Government into direct confrontation with Mr Musharraf, who has advised against the reinstatement of the judges.

The embattled leader removed Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice, and some 60 other independent judges of higher courts, fearing that they might not endorse his controversial re-election as President for another five year term. Mr Chaudhry is still under house arrest.

His arrest triggered nationwide protests by lawyers and led to the defeat of Mr Musharraf's supporters in last month's elections. Some analysts predict that the President might resign if the judge returns. Police fired teargas shells to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to force their way through a police cordon around Mr Chaudhry's residence in Islamabad demanding his immediate release.

Yesterday lawyers announced a week of fresh protests and urged the new Parliament to get the judges' restored. Several thousand people, including union members and journalists, gathered peacefully in the southern city of Karachi also to demand that Mr Musharraf step down.

Troubled times

March 2007 President Musharraf suspends Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Supreme Court Chief. Supporters of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif hold joint protests July Supreme Court reinstates Chaudhry. Bhutto and Musharraf discuss power-sharing deal

August Supreme Court rules that Sharif can return from exile

September Sharif returns but is sent back without leaving aircraft

October Musharraf wins presidential election, Supreme Court declares result invalid. Bhutto returns and narrowly escapes suicide bombing

November Musharraf declares state of emergency, dismisses Chaudhry again. Election Commission announces elections for January 8, 2008, ratifies Musharraf's election

December 15 State of emergency lifted

December 27 Bhutto assassinated

January 2008 Election postponed to February 18

February 18 Bhutto and Sharif's parties share clear majority of vote

Mail-in ballot suggested as possible Florida-Michigan fix

(CNN) -- Political leaders on Sunday debated the idea of again holding votes in Michigan and Florida using a mail-in ballot to resolve the issue of delegates from those states being barred from participating in the nominating process.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean says a mail-in ballot could be one way to deal with the delegate dilemma.

The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of their delegates for violating party rules by scheduling their primaries too early.

Michigan and Florida held Democratic primaries, but the candidates agreed not to campaign in either state, and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who won both states, was the only top-tier candidate on the ballot in Michigan.

Also, some people chose not to vote because they knew their state's delegates wouldn't count.

Democrats agree that new voting is needed to determine convention delegates for Florida and Michigan, but the question is how.

Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are running such a tight race that it looks like neither candidate will get the 2,024 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. If Florida and Michigan count, they could put either candidate over the top. The states have 366 pledged delegates and superdelegates between them.

The governors from both states have said it would be "intolerable" to not count their residents' votes, but Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, argues that the states knew the rules before they scheduled their contests.

Dean on Sunday said a mail-in ballot is "not a bad way to do this."

"Every voter gets a ballot in the mail. It's comprehensive. You get to vote if you're in Iraq or in a nursing home," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The problem, Dean said, is figuring out who would foot the bill.

"The two things, I think, that are established is [Florida] isn't going to pay for it because their governor, who is a [John] McCain supporter, has said they won't pay for it," he said, speaking of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

The DNC is not going to pay for it, he said, because it must devote its resources to running against presumptive GOP nominee McCain.

But Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, said now is not the time for a mail-in ballot.

"We have never conducted a mail-in ballot in Florida, and in an election that is this important, an experiment like that is -- now is not the time to test that," she said on "Fox News Sunday."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, has also said he doesn't think there is a fair way to redo the vote in his state.

"There's no way to have a primary. That's state law. That can't be changed, and that can't be paid for," he said on ABC's "Face the Nation."

Levin said a mail-in caucus is one possibility, but "there's some real problems with that, too."

"Not just cost, but the security issue. How do you make sure that hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million or more ballots, can be properly counted and that duplicate ballots can be avoided," he said.

Levin added that he thinks it would be "outrageous" to not seat the delegates in Florida and Michigan.

A source close to the discussions told CNN that the state party agreed not to spend any taxpayer dollars on a revote, which in Michigan could cost $10 million or more.

Another contest in Florida could cost as much as $20 million, said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Florida Department of State. He said Florida would need at least 90 days from the time a decision is made to set up any new election.

Dean says Florida and Michigan cannot be given passes for violating rules that were clear to them.

"The rules were set a year and a half ago. Florida and Michigan voted for them and then decided that they didn't need to abide by the rules. When you're in a contest, you do need to abide by the rules," he said last week.

"You cannot violate the rules of the process and then expect to get forgiven for it," he said.

Dean said he has to run a process that yields an honest result. "The only way to do that is to stick to the rules that were agreed to by everybody at the beginning," he said.

Associated Press
Specialist: Poultry Not Polluting River
By TIM TALLEY 03.07.08, 12:53 PM ET

An infectious disease specialist testified Friday that chicken litter does not pose a threat to the Illinois River watershed.

Dr. Herbert Dupont (nyse: DD - news - people ) of St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston said the bacteria count in the Illinois River is too low to cause illnesses such as salmonella.

He said human waste and cow manure are more likely to pollute the river than chicken litter.

"It isn't a problem in my opinion," Dupont said on the sixth day of testimony in Attorney General Drew Edmondson's attempt to stop 13 poultry companies from disposing of waste in the 1 million acre watershed in northeastern Oklahoma.

"If poultry was a real reservoir, we'd know about that. Chicken ain't the source."

Dupont, a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, testified on behalf of the poultry producers and seemed to contradict a Harvard-trained expert who testified on Monday.

Robert Lawrence, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, testified that bacteria levels from land application of poultry waste in the watershed represent a "real and present danger" to public health.

Lawrence said that because of the level of contamination in the watershed, swimmers and canoeists in the Illinois River need to be informed of the risk.

Approximately 155,000 people recreate in the river each year. State and environmental officials claim that years of illegal spreading of the waste, which could include bacteria, antibiotics and harmful metals, is killing Oklahoma's scenic lakes.

Edmondson sued the poultry companies in 2005, alleging that litter pollution had made Lake Tenkiller in northeastern Oklahoma 70 percent oxygen dead. Edmondson has accused the companies of treating Oklahoma's rivers like open sewers.

The state estimates that more than 345,000 tons of poultry waste is produced annually in the watershed, with the bulk of that tonnage disposed of in the same area. More than 576,000 acres of the watershed are located in Oklahoma.

Countrywide reportedly under FBI investigation

The troubled home loan servicer is being probed by Feds for using fraudulent lending practices, financial reporting.

CEOs on the hot seat

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The FBI has launched an investigation into the lending practices of battered home lender Countrywide Financial Corp. according to a U.S. government official, CNN has learned. The mortgage company is suspected of fraud, the official said, which may have contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis that has rocked the U.S. economy.

The story was first reported in The Wall Street Journal Saturday.

The probe will examine underwriting and mortgage origination practices, and whether the company misrepresented losses related to subprime loans, the paper said.

Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation has acknowledged ongoing investigations related to the subprime debacle, neither the FBI nor the Justice Department would comment on the specific targets.

"The FBI has been investigating potential fraud in the mortgage/sub-prime lending industry, however, we can not confirm or deny which companies are under investigation," said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

Both Countrywide and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which agreed in January to acquire Countrywide for $4 billion in stock, did not return calls to CNN.

Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide is the nation's largest home lender, responsible for roughly one-fifth of the mortgages in the United States.

When the housing crash began, Countrywide (CFC, Fortune 500) was faced with an increasing number of subprime customers who were delinquent with their mortgage payments. The company was forced to essentially shut down its subprime lending operations last year to focus on originating loans that conform to Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) guidelines, considered to be safe investments.

On Friday Countrywide's founder and CEO, Angelo Mozilo, testified before the House Committee on Government and Oversight Reform, along with two other CEOs who resigned in the wake of the mortgage crisis -- Charles Prince of Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), and Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500). All three defended their lofty compensation packages, despite the loss of billions to their companies and shareholders.