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Islamabad: The sooner Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf accepts the verdict of the people and steps down the better it will be for him, Musharraf's old foe, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said on Monday.
Sharif was one of the big winners of last week's election, coming up second only to that of assassinated former prime minister Benzair Bhutto.
While Musharraf did not take part in the parliamentary elections, the main party that backs him came a poor third, largely because of the president's unpopularity and anger over rising prices and food shortages, analysts say.
Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who has led her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) since Bhutto's death on December 27, have agreed to work together to form a government, together with a small, Pashtun nationalist party based in the northwest.
Sharif, ousted by former army chief Musharraf in 1999, has repeatedly called for Musharraf to quit.
"The sooner Musharraf realises and accepts the verdict of the people and steps down, the better it will be for him," Sharif told a news conference in Islamabad.
Musharraf, elected by legislators for another five-year term in October, has ruled out resigning and has vowed to work with whoever becomes the next prime minister.
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