(21 Feb 2008)
1. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) motorcade sweeping into Parliament Lodges
2. Wide of Pakistan's Parliament
3. PPP security men around vehicle of party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari
4. Mid of security
5. Cutaway of media
6. Zardari and head of Awami National Party (ANP), Asfandyar Ali Khan, exiting Khan's parliamentary residence
7. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Asif Ali Zardari, Co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party:
"In principle we have decided that we will work together for the supremacy of parliament and democracy."
8. PPP media secretary Senator Farhatullah Babar gesturing
9. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu/English) Asfandyar Ali Khan, Leader of Awami National Party:
"We are agreed on the supremacy of parliament, we are agreed on the war on terror, on provincial autonomy, on federation, and on judicial reforms. We are totally on board with each other and Inshallah (God willing) it will be very smooth sailing together."
10. Khan and Zardari talking to media
11. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu/English) Asif Ali Zardari, Co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party:
"Our party and the ANP, in principle we have decided to work for the interests of Pakistan and the interests of democracy at large."
12. Wide of media surrounding Khan and Zardari
13. Zardari and Khan embracing, waving at supporters
14. Zardari's motorcade departing
STORYLINE:
Pakistan's political parties continued their efforts to form a government on Thursday, with main party leaders assembling in the capital Islamabad for talks to establish the shape of the next parliament.
Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party and widower of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, met with Asfandyar Ali Khan, leader of the Awami National Party, a secular Pashtun Nationalist Party on Thursday.
The PPP is now the largest party in Pakistan winning the most seats in Monday's parliamentary elections.
The ANP won nine seats in the ballot.
"In principle we have decided that we will work together for the supremacy of parliament and democracy," Zardari told reporters after the meeting.
He did not elaborate.
Khan said he and Zardari had agreed on a number of issues.
"We are agreed on the supremacy of parliament, we are agreed on the war on terror, on provincial autonomy, on federation, and on judicial reforms," Khan said.
One of the first tasks of the new government, expected to be installed by mid-March, will be determining how to fight Islamic extremists, who have expanded their reach beyond traditional northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.
The country has been hit by dozens of attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent months that together have left hundreds dead, including Bhutto, killed in a suicide bombing and gun attack on December 27 as she waved to supporters from the sun roof of her car.
Zardari has said he wants to open dialogue with al-Qaida- and Taliban-linked militants, a sharp departure from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's hard-line approach.
Later on Thursday Zardari was expected to meet the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, Nawaz Sharif, to discuss the formation of a new government.
It will be the first time the two have met since Monday's election.
The two leaders will have to iron out significant differences, including the future of Musharraf and the restoration of the judiciary.
Zardari says the parliament should decide on the fate of the embattled president and the deposed judges but Sharif says Musharraf should be impeached and the justices immediately reinstated.
Musharraf's ruling party came in a dismal third.
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