In an interview from exile in London, Sharif said an "erratic" and "impulsive" President Musharraf is committing crimes and blunders in a desperate bid to resist a rising public backlash to his actions.

"I think the chances (of his political survival) are bleak and they are getting bleaker day by day," Sharif told AFP Monday from his offices decorated with the Pakistani flag, a white crescent and star on a green background.

Long at loggerheads with Pakistan's Islamists for his close ties with Washington in the war on terrorism, Musharraf now faces even broader opposition since he suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9.

The president says Chaudhry was suspended for misconduct, but his opponents say Musharraf wants to weaken the courts ahead of any legal challenges to his bid to remain army chief past the constitutional time limit of the end of 2007.

Sharif's ouster from power in 1999 was widely welcomed by ordinary Pakistanis tired of corruption under his rule.

Now in Britain after years of exile in Saudi Arabia, Sharif intends to go home before general elections later this year or early 2008, even though Musharraf has vowed to bar Sharif and former premier Benazir Bhutto from doing so.