(CNSNews.com) - As President Pervez Musharraf swore in a new prime minister representing forces opposed to his presidency, a leading member of the incoming coalition warned that Pakistan will pay more attention to national interests in its conduct of the anti-terror campaign.

"Pakistan cannot be made a killing field for the interests of others," former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said Tuesday.

Since 9/11, Pakistan's decisions on combating terrorism in cooperation with the U.S. had all been made by "one man" who had used the campaign "to perpetuate his rule," he said in reference to Musharraf.

"Now the situation has changed," Sharif told reporters after meeting with top State Department officials in Islamabad. "Every decision will be presented before the parliament, [and] they will review Musharraf's policy in the last six years."

Sharif's party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is a major partner in the new governing coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), whose candidate for prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, was sworn in by Musharraf on Tuesday, a day after the National Assembly elected him to the top post.

The PPP and PML-N were victors in legislative elections last month which left Musharraf's parliamentary allies in disarray.

The new government wants to reduce Musharraf's powers, including the authority to dissolve parliament, while some -- like Sharif, who is not in parliament but wields considerable influence -- want to see him go.

One possible way for this to happen would be if the government keeps its pledge to restore within one month senior judges ousted by Musharraf late last year. If they are returned to office, they would likely take up challenges to the legality of Musharraf's presidency. Those challenges were interrupted when Musharraf last October fired the entire Supreme Court bench.

In an early test of the power shift, one of Gilani's first moves -- even before being sworn in -- was to order the release of judges placed under house arrest in November, including the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a leading Musharraf critic.

In an editorial, the Karachi-based daily The News said the president should begin voluntarily relinquishing some of the powers he has accumulated over the years, and "realize that his role as head of state will now be that of a constitutional figurehead," as envisaged in Pakistan's 1973 constitution.

While the U.S. has welcomed the political transition as another step towards a return to civilian rule more than eight years after Musharraf seized power in a coup, it also poses challenges to the effectiveness of the military campaign against Taliban and other terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal border regions.

Musharraf after 9/11 bowed to U.S. pressure, ended Pakistan's longstanding support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and became a partner in the U.S.-led drive to overthrow the regime in Kabul and hunt down its al-Qaeda allies.

Thousands of Pakistanis, troops and civilians, have been killed in related violence over the years since, and a wave of suicide bombings has cost more than 600 lives since the beginning of this year alone.

Sharif said efforts to fight extremism had been hampered by a lack of public support for Musharraf and his security policies.

While he condemned terrorism and wanted to see peace in the rest of the world, Pakistan's security should not be sacrificed in order to ensure that other countries were made secure, Sharif said.

His party and the PPP have indicated their willingness to talk to some of the militant groups in the tribal areas, rather than rely purely on military actions. (Musharraf in fact also controversially negotiated in the past with some Islamists in the remote frontier region, although resulting agreements were generally ineffectual and short-lived.)

When campaigning ahead of the Feb. 18 election, Sharif's PML-N party called for a "dual" approach to the security problem - using force against terrorists while taking steps "to win the hearts and minds of people who support them, through a concerted process of political engagement."

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said Tuesday a new plan to combat terrorism would be unveiled once the new prime minister issues policy guidelines.

Terrorism has featured strongly in talks between visiting Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher and a range of political figures, including Musharraf, Gilani, Sharif and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari.

The president told the Americans that Pakistan would continue to pursue a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, according to a statement released by the foreign office afterwards.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington the visit by the U.S. officials was an opportunity to engage with the incoming government and discuss issues including how to fight terrorism.

"You know where we stand with respect to dealing with terrorist groups and violent extremists," he told reporters.

McCormack said the U.S. wanted Pakistan to broaden and deepen its economic and political reforms, a process that was inextricably linked to fighting extremism.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told a press briefing Tuesday that President Bush had spoken by phone with Pakistan's new prime minister, and "they both agreed that it is in both of their countries' best interests to continue to fight terrorists and extremists. So we anticipate continued cooperation."

Separately, the White House announced that the president has again signed a waiver that permits the U.S. to fund Pakistan's counter-terror operations despite restrictions on funding to countries where legitimate governments have been ousted in military coups.

See Also:
Pakistan Gov't-in-the-Making Could Impact Military Supply Routes (Feb. 26, 2008)

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.