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Musharraf readies for government’s charge sheet

— Photo: AFP

Supporters of President Pervez Musharraf at a protest rally against his impeachment in Karachi on Monday.

ISLAMABAD: The momentum towards ousting President Pervez Musharraf gathered strength as political parties in the ruling coalition resolved that the session of the National Assembly, which began on Monday would continue until impeachment notice was submitted to the Assembly Speaker.

The Punjab Provincial Assembly, which also met on Monday, passed a resolution calling upon the retired General Pervez Musharraf to resign or seek a vote of confidence from the new Assemblies, calling upon Parliament to move an impeachment motion against him if he did not do so. The other three Assemblies would follow suit over this week.

Once this process is completed, the ruling coalition is expected to begin impeachment proceedings while mounting pressure on General Musharraf to quit before that. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari reiterated on Monday that General Musharraf should resign, and if he did not, the alliance would go ahead with the impeachment.

Before the National Assembly met for the first day of the current session, the parliamentary parties of the four coalition partners held a meeting to decide on its strategy for the session.

Finance Minister Naveed Qamar told journalists the meeting had decided that the session would continue as long as it took to prepare the “charge sheet” against President Musharraf, which would be given to the Speaker with the notice of impeachment. Earlier, another senior PPP leader said as impeachment was a complicated process, the time to complete preparing the charge sheet could stretch until the first week of September.

Although the committee of coalition leaders drafting the charges has been tight-lipped, the charges against General Musharraf are said to range from the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti; “war on terror” in the tribal areas; controversial operation in the capital’s Lal Masjid; and his November 3, 2007, imposition of the Emergency.

Corruption has also been added to the list of charges after Mr. Zardari declared General Musharraf had siphoned off U.S. military aid for the “war on terror” to the tune of $700 million a year.

General Musharraf is said to have rubbished the charges against him to two parliamentarians, Sheikh Waqas and Marvi Memon, from the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), his chief political ally, when they visited him on Monday.

He is said to have told them he had nothing unconstitutional, none of the charges would stick, and he predicted the ruling coalition would fall short of numbers to impeach him. General Musharraf is also reported to have blamed PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif for “destabilising” Pakistan and undermining democracy.

On Sunday, a presidential spokesman ruled out the possibility of General Musharraf resigning, saying all the charges against him were “fabricated.” But even his political allies are unsure whether they would defend him from the impeachment.

A meeting of the PML(Q) parliamentarians saw only 18 members attend although the party has a strength of 56 in the National Assembly.

The party leadership has pledged to defend General Musharraf, but its members are privately echoing the demand of the coalition that it would be better for the President to quit rather than submit himself to the process of impeachment as it would be humiliating both for the PML(Q) and to him.

Smaller allies have also begun to desert him. A faction of the PPP led by the former Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, said the party had not yet decided if it would support General Musharraf.

Even the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, an ally of General Musharraf, is in a dilemma. Defending him against the impeachment could mean political isolation, while deserting him would lay the party open to the charge that it backstabbed him when he needed it the most.

It is not clear yet which way a faction of the PPP led by Makhdoom Amin Fahim — who was overlooked for prime ministership — would go. Meanwhile, rumours are circulating that the Army has already told General Musharraf to quit, and he is now negotiating for “safe passage” and an amnesty.

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