NAROWAL: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will see growing turmoil unless he takes steps to bolster democracy as opposition coalesces around a demand for an independent judiciary, his main rival Nawaz Sharif said on Monday.

Zardari, whose party leads a ruling coalition, is locked in a battle with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif's supporters have been protesting daily since last week when the Supreme Court barred Sharif and his brother from standing for election, and Zardari imposed central rule over Punjab province, dismissing its government led by Sharif's party.

Countrywide protests loom this month with Sharif's party and others backing a campaign organised by a lawyers' movement for the independence of the judiciary.

‘If the situation is not arrested here, I see it getting worse,’ Sharif told Reuters in an interview as he drove through flat farm land to address a rally by thousands of supporters in the Punjab town of Narowal.

‘His personal agenda comes into clash with Pakistan's agenda and with our agenda which is to restore democracy, restore the independence of the judiciary ... establish the rule of law.’

Ostensibly, Zardari and Sharif, who head the country's two biggest political parties, disagree over the judiciary but at the heart of their feud is a struggle for power.

A year ago the two leaders were all smiles as Sharif joined Zardari's coalition. But a rift soon developed over the restoration of judges Musharraf had dismissed.

Sharif has committed his party to supporting a lawyers' movement trying to force Zardari to reinstate former Supreme Court chief Iftikhar Chaudhry who was suspended and later dismissed by Musharraf in 2007.

But Zardari fears if Chaudhry is reinstated, he could nullify an amnesty that Musharraf granted Bhutto and Zardari to enable them to return to Pakistan without fear of prosecution for old charges of corruption.

Sharif has won much support for his stand on the popular chief justice and while denying any thought of personal gain, he might in future need the help of judicial allies to clear hurdles to his return to power.

Sharif says last week's Supreme Court ruling has united Zardari's political and judicial opponents.

‘Mr Zardari has made it possible, has linked the two together. This perhaps is one of his biggest blunders,’ he said.

The country, rescued by an IMF loan in November, can ill afford political turbulence as it struggles to get its economy on track and stem militant violence. Stocks fell again on Monday as the political crisis gnawed at investors.

‘We have a very serious internal economic situation and this is not the way to give confidence to investors,’ Sharif said.

‘Confidence has been very badly shaken ... No investors will come from outside and no Pakistanis will undertake new ventures.’

Meanwhile, addressing a public rally in Narowal on Monday, Nawaz Sharif said the people of Pakistan do not accept the judges appointed by former president Pervez Musharraf.

He said the massive public turn out clearly indicates that people do not approve of the present government's attitudes and policies.

Despite the Supreme Court's decisions and the Pakistan People's Party's attitude, Shahbaz Sharif still enjoys support of the majority in Punjab, he further said.

'Asif Zardari has embraced Musharraf's judges,' he said, adding that change in the county's political and judicial setup was inevitable.

He also said Pakistan's socio-economic turn-around depended upon political change.

'PPP cannot succeed in its bid to form a government in Punjab,' he asserted.