Islamabad: Former premier Nawaz Sharif today said Pakistan's newly elected lawmakers had demonstrated that Parliament is supreme by taking oath under the pre-emergency Constitution and stuck to his demand that President Pervez Musharraf should quit.

"We do not accept extra-constitutional steps and have rejected the Provisional Constitutional Order (promulgated by Musharraf during the emergency)," he told reporters here.

After the new MPs assembled for the swearing-in ceremony this morning, senior PPP leader Naveed Qamar told outgoing National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain that the members of the winning parties would take oath only according to the Constitution as it existed before being amended by President Pervez Musharraf during last year's emergency.

Hussain clarified that the oath administered to MPs was the one contained in the constitution of 1973.

Sharif said the sooner Musharraf decided about his future, the better it would be for him. He suggested the best way out for the President is to quit.

Asked about the possibility of Musharraf being impeached by the new government, Sharif said this depended on the President, who should take "timely decision" to avert such an action.

Sharif said his PML-N party, which will back the Pakistan People's Party to form a coalition government, would work to strengthen the National Assembly and the federal set-up.

The parliament and the new coalition government will take decisions in the national interest without being influenced from abroad, Sharif said. "This country belongs to its people and we have to do what is good for the country and its future," he said.

Sharif also expressed concern over what he described as "conspiracies" to subvert the mandate given by the people in the February 18 general election.

Noting that the National Assembly was convened almost a month after the polls, he said there was no indication as yet about summoning the four provincial assemblies.

The nomination of candidates for the offices of prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker is the right of the PPP, he said. "The PML-N will stand with the PPP and respect its decision on the nominations," he added.

Sharif spoke to reporters after meeting retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui to discuss the move by the PPP and PML-N to reinstate the judges who were deposed by Musharraf during the emergency.

Siddiqui told reporters that a simple majority in the National Assembly could reinstate the sacked judges and the President should respect the verdict given by the masses in the polls.

Source : PTI