Pakistani former premier Nawaz Sharif (L) and Qazi Hussain Ahmed (2R) chief of fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami, speak to the media during a joint press conference after their meeting in Islamabad yesterday. Sharif called for Pakistan's ousted judiciary to rule on the legality of President Pervez Musharraf's position before any parliamentary move to impeach him. Photo: AFP

Former premier Nawaz Sharif called yesterday for Pakistan's ousted judiciary to rule on the legality of President Pervez Musharraf's position before any parliamentary move to impeach him.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N formed a coalition with the Pakistan People's Party of slain ex-PM Benazir Bhutto last week, after their groupings trounced Musharraf's backers in parliamentary elections mounting calls for him to quit.
But Musharraf's spokesman on Monday dismissed a suggestion from three US senators that the embattled leader make a "graceful exit" from power his opponents' victory in Pakistan's elections.
Musharraf was elected to a new five-year presidential term last year by Pakistani lawmakers, "not by any senator from the United States," his spokesman Rashid Qureshi told Dawn News television.
"So I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people," he said.
Earlier The Sunday Telegraph of London quoted a close aide of Musharraf as saying that the President believed he had run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week's poll announced they would form a coalition government, and also pledged to reinstate the country's chief justice and 60 other judges sacked in November.
"He has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself," a close friend said. "I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high."
The US Senator added his voice to the chorus, saying it would "probably" be a good idea for Musharraf to look for a "graceful exit".
The three US senators met Musharraf shortly after last week's parliamentary vote in which his political allies were routed. Some Pakistani political leaders have also called for him to resign.
Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that he would advise Musharraf to seek a dignified way to leave office.
"I firmly believe if (political parties) do not focus on old grudges and there's plenty in Pakistan and give him a graceful way to move," then it could happen, Biden, a Democrat, said on ABC television.
Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Chuck Hagel also endorsed a negotiated retreat rather than a push from power for Musharraf.
Because Pak opposition parties are seeking further allies to get them the two-thirds majority they need to impeach the president, who has repeatedly dismissed calls by Sharif and other opposition leaders to quit.
But Sharif said that top judges sacked by Musharraf under a state of emergency in November should be restored first so that they can decide the legality of Musharraf's re-election as president in October last year.
"Before parliament impeaches him we want this issue resolved by the judiciary... it should not reach that stage," Sharif told reporters after meeting hardline Islamist politician Qazi Hussain Ahmed in Islamabad.