Musharraf resignation call rejected

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A spokesman for Pervez Musharraf Tuesday rejected any demand for the resignation of the Pakistani president in the wake of his party's rout in elections.

Speaking on local television, Rashid Qureshi said Musharraf was duly elected last October to a second term as president and any call for his resignation has no merit as Musharraf was not a candidate in Monday's parliamentary elections, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999 in the bloodless military coup, was reported to have called for the president to step down after his ruling Pakistan Muslim League faction had conceded.

"He (Sharif) has said it without thinking of what he wants to say and I would not like to comment. It is only aimed at creating some fiction," Qureshi was quoted as saying.

He said Musharraf was elected with 67 percent vote by the assemblies last October under the new constitution,

Sharif's party, along with the other opposition Pakistan People's Party, were winning most of the seats to the National and provincial assembly elections. The two planned to discuss forming a coalition government which could threaten Musharraf's authority