WASHINGTON, Nov 15: Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on Thursday deplored the announcement that the chief of army staff had given the president the power to lift the emergency, thereby indicating that it might not be lifted even after Gen Musharraf removed his uniform.

“It is sad,” said Mr Sharif. “See, what they have done to the country! Who is the chief of staff to delegate powers to the president? Sad. Very sad,” said Mr Sharif.

Ms Bhutto, however, said that the move needed to be studied carefully. “It could mean that Gen Musharraf has decided to quit the army and that’s why he has given new powers to the president,” she said.

She observed that under the Constitution, the president could declare a state of emergency but he had no power to suspend the Constitution.

Mr Sharif did not get into the legalities of the move and instead focussed on condemning the act. “How tragic,” he said. “The chief of army staff is delegating powers to the president as an act of kindness, as a favour. It hurts to see what they have done to Pakistan.” The two leaders expressed their views in separate interviews to VOA.

Mr Sharif claimed that President Musharraf had trapped himself in a black hole and the more he tried to get out, the deeper he would sink.

“Will it not be better for everyone, if the army quits politics and returns to barracks?” he asked.

Mr Sharif rejected the suggestion that the army seemed to have curbed the popular backlash against the emergency. “No, they have not. The resistance is increasing and it will get worse every day. I do not see how Gen Musharraf is going to survive,” he said.

Ms Bhutto rejected the government’s claim that the current assembly was the first in Pakistan’s history to complete a five-year term. “It is not true. The first assembly to do so was that of Zuilfikar Ali Bhutto,” she said.

“This assembly was not people’s assembly. It was the army chief’s assembly and worked under his wings.”

“Complete its tenure? What a tenure,” said Mr Sharif. “It was a slave assembly … which twice elected a military ruler and completes its tenure under a martial law, when the country’s Constitution is suspended. What tenure!”

Both Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif agreed with Maulana Rehman’s suggestion that the PML (N) and the PPP should resolve their differences and work together to bring down the military government.

Mr Sharif said until recently, Ms Bhutto and he were on the same platform and he was still willing to work with her for the restoration of democracy. “We should have clear objectives and should work sincerely with each other to achieve those objectives,” he said.

He said he was willing to cooperate with all political forces in the country to implement a one-point agenda: restoration of the judiciary and of the judges sacked under the PCO.

“Once, we achieve that, we will achieve all our goals: restoration of democracy, freedom of the media, end of military rule, everything.”

Ms Bhutto also agreed with the suggestion that opposition parties should work together to bring down Gen Musharraf but said she never spoke about forming an alliance.

“We should set an agenda that is acceptable to all and then we should set to achieve this agenda,” she said.

She said the APDM and the ARD seemed to have similar objectives but opposition leaders needed to sit together to decide how they wanted to struggle for democracy, under one umbrella as an alliance or work as separate groups cooperating with each other to achieve their objective.