Pakistan’s ruling coalition tightened the screw on President Pervez Musharraf yesterday, saying it had readied impeachment charges against him and was giving him two days to resign.
Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said “the charge sheet will be presented in parliament by Tuesday.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said a day earlier that Musharraf must decide on quitting “by today or tomorrow.”
PHOTO: AP
The coalition finalized the charges yesterday after intense deliberations and would present them today to the alliance’s leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.
“It is a historic document,” Rehman told reporters.
She said it would be submitted to parliament as part of an impeachment resolution “this week,” but did not elaborate.
A spokesman for Musharraf has repeatedly denied that the president is going to resign. But Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum, a close confidant of Musharraf, said the president would wait until the impeachment motion was filed before choosing a course of action.
“Whether he quits or counters the impeachment move will be decided after he sees the charges,” Qayyum said, adding that challenging impeachment in the Supreme Court remained an option.
With Pakistan’s powerful army taking a neutral stance towards its former chief, the court is the only institution Musharraf can still count on, as he purged it of opponents during a state of emergency last November.
Musharraf’s other courses of action — either dissolving the national assembly or imposing emergency rule again — are fraught with risk.
Musharraf’s allies and coalition officials have said separately that his aides are in talks with the government in a bid to secure him an indemnity from prosecution if he throws in the towel.
Saudi Arabia and reportedly the US and Britain have sent envoys in a bid to resolve the crisis.
Talks on getting immunity for Musharraf have been hampered by the opposition of former premier Sharif.
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