Sharif tells US: We know what to do with Musharraf

"Pakistan will take decisions on its own. What is to be done with an unconstitutional President is Pakistan's internal matter. There is no need for any foreign advice," Sharif told reporters at Islamabad airport shortly after his arrival in Islamabad from Lahore this morning.

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher had said on Wednesday that Pakistan should focus more on security, extremism, rising food costs and power shortages and less on the fate of Musharraf.

"President Musharraf isn't the issue right now, this is not the problem that Pakistan faces right now," Boucher told a news conference on Wednesday after meeting Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders.

Sharif, the chief of the PML-N which is a key partner in the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party, criticized the operation launched by security forces against militants in the tribal region.

He said the government had not taken its allies into confidence before starting the operation in the Khyber Agency near Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province.

Paramilitary forces launched the operation in Khyber Agency on Saturday against three militant groups. They have destroyed militant bases and arrested over 50 rebels. Boucher welcomed the operation and claimed that the militants had terrified the people and there was also a threat to Peshawar.

However, Sharif said the operation in the tribal region went against the understanding of the new coalition. The ruling PPP should not take important decisions without consulting its allies, he said.

"We are in the same situation as were in before February 18," Sharif said, referring to the situation prevailing in Pakistan before the holding of the general election.

Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in the 1999 bloodless military coup, has been demanding that the President be impeached and tried for treason.

His party quit the cabinet last month over its demand to get reinstated the judges sacked by Musharraf during emergency in 2007.

Sharif expressed disappointment at the people's mandate not being honoured by the government. He noted that it had earlier been decided that dialogue would be given a chance to handle security problems in the NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The PML-N leadership had no idea why this policy was subsequently changed, he said. Such big decisions as the launching of operations by security forces should not be taken by a single party, he added.