Musharraf must quit, says Nawaz Sharif

LONDON: President Pervez Musharraf must step down immediately or he would be forced to quit by the people, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday as Pakistan's Opposition parties demanded elections under a caretaker regime, bereft of the General.

"Musharraf must quit, otherwise the nation of 160 million people of Pakistan will force him to step down," Sharif, who was sent into exile after the 1999 coup, said on the sidelines of a one-day conference of opposition leaders here.

Musharraf, 63, came to power after ousting the elected government of Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup.

The conference called for new elections under a caretaker government in Pakistan in which Musharraf will have no place.

Musharraf is facing growing instability including a siege at a radical mosque, a gathering storm of domestic Islamic extremism and a popular backlash for sacking the country's chief justice.

Cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, heading the Pakistan Muslim League have decided to work together to end Musharraf regime.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said she is determined to return to Pakistan despite the threat of corruption charges and the constitutional amendments that bar anyone from being elected for a third term.

"I intend to go back before the year's end and contest the elections.  And if my people wish, they will lift that ban to enable me to then serve them as prime minister for a third time," she told 'The Independent' newspaper.

Bhutto, who was twice Prime Minister and is now in exile in Dubai and London, said the army might 'give up on' Musharraf.