PPP waiting for opportune occasion to provide exit to Mush

Karachi, June 16 (PTI) With Pakistan Muslim League -
Nawaz (P.M.L.-N.) chief Nawaz Sharif sharpening his rhetoric
against Pervez Musharraf, the ruling Pakistan People's Party (
P.P.P.) said it was waiting for an "opportune" moment to offer
an "exit" to the embattled President.

Pakistan People's Party will be the one that "sends
President Pervez Musharraf home," its co-chairman Asif Ali
Zardari said at a dinner he hosted here Sunday night for his
party's ministers in the provincial government of Sindh.

The P.P.P. wants to "provide an exit to President
Musharraf and was waiting for an opportune occasion," he said.

Zardari's comments came in the wake of a demand by his
ally Sharif for Musharraf to be made accountable for his
actions over the past eight-and-a-half years.

Addressing the "long march" by the lawyers to press for
the reinstatement of judges deposed by Musharraf, Sharif had
also said Saturday that the President could not be provided
a "safe exit".

Referring to the "long march", Zardari said in the past
marches of even 1,000 people were not tolerated, while the
P.P.P.-led government had allowed the march of 30,000 people.

In the past, no one was allowed to enter Islamabad to
even stage a protest rally, while the new government had
"adopted a democratic stance and facilitated the marchers," he
said.

P.M.L.-N. lawmaker Hanif Abbasi said Sunday that 48 MPs
of his party had signed a motion to impeach Musharraf. Abbasi
said the motion would be introduced in parliament soon but it
was not clear whether the move had the backing of the top
leadership of the P.P.P. and P.M.L.-N.

The ruling coalition has a majority in the National
Assembly or lower house of parliament while the opposition
Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam (P.M.L.-Q.) has a
slender majority in the Senate or upper house. A two-thirds
majority in both houses is needed to pass an impeachment
motion.