Asif Ali Zardari (right), widower of assassinated ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif (left)signed a coalition pact on Sunday following last month's general elections in which they trounced Mr Musharraf's allies. -- PHOTO: AFP

Mr Musharraf huddled with legal aides a day after Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif signed a coalition pact following last month's general elections.

Mr Zardari is the de facto leader of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which won the most seats in the Feb 18 ballot and, along with Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), trounced Mr Musharraf's political backers.

In a major blow to Mr Musharraf, a key US ally in the 'war on terror', they also agreed to bring back, within the first 30 days of the new parliament, the judges ousted by the president during emergency rule last November.

The dismissed judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Mr Musharraf's arch-foe, could take up legal challenges to Mr Musharraf's re-election as president in October if they are restored.

Asked whether the president would step down if parliament gives the judges back their jobs, close Musharraf ally and former deputy information minister Tariq Azeem told AFP: 'It does not look like it.'

'Now the question is that how can it (restoring the deposed judges) be done, through a parliamentary resolution, simple majority or a two-thirds majority. It is a legal issue basically,' he added.

Government officials said Mr Musharraf was 'meeting legal aides' at his office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi but did not give details on what was being discussed.

Private television channels said it was a 'strategy meeting' including legal and constitutional advisers.

In the eastern city of Lahore, about 5,000 lawyers chanting anti-Musharraf slogans called on the president to step down, a day after police tear gassed protesters outside Mr Chaudhry's house in Islamabad.

Mr Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999, but his hold on power weakened last year when he stepped down as army chief under intense domestic and international pressure.

Pressure on him to resign has grown since the elections, and the fate of the sacked judges was one of the main sticking points in forming a coalition between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif.

The two parties thrashed out their differences at the talks on Sunday and also called on Mr Musharraf to inaugurate parliament as soon as possible.

Caretaker prime minister Mohammedmian Soomro on Monday sent Mr Musharraf a formal recommendation to convene the national assembly, or lower house, a senior official in the premier?s secretariat said.

No date has been announced yet, but officials said Mr Musharraf must call parliament within a week of receiving the recommendation. -- AFP