Mush under pressure to quit as govt vows to nail him in NA

Islamabad, Aug 11 (PTI) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
Sunday faced mounting pressure from friends and foes to quit
as the ruling coalition prepared a "comprehensive and solid"
chargesheet to nail him in an impeachment motion to be brought
in the special National Assembly session starting Monday.

"We will prepare a comprehensive and solid chargesheet
that Musharraf will not be able to fight it....it is very
necessary that he resigns himself, otherwise the impeachment
will start," Law Minister Farooq Naek said after the ruling
coalition met to draw a battle plan to end Musharraf's
nine-year reign.

The document to be tabled in Parliament will charge
Musharraf with violation of the Constitution and misconduct.

The 342-member lower house will meet at 5 PM (local time)
Monday for the session that is expected to decide the fate of
the 64-year-old Musharraf who has vowed not to quit and also
ruled out dissolving the House to overcome the crisis facing
him.

While there have been questions as to whether the
coalition had the numbers in the two houses of Parliament --
the National Assembly and the Senate, PPP chief Asif Ali
Zardari said he was "110 percent sure of the success of the
impeachment process.

"We had already completed the numbers game before
launching such a vital move," Zardari said in an interview to
a Pakistani private channel Saturday night. The Assembly has a
strength of 442, and the motion will have to be passed by a
two-thirds majority or 295 members.

Cracks have already appeared in Musharraf's main ally
PML(Q) with MP Sardar Bahadur Khan Sihar, advising the
President to gracefully quit and claiming to have "support" of
a dozen MPs and a couple of senators.

Four independent senators from Federally Administered
Tribal Areas have also asked Musharraf to quit and pledged to
support the impeachment motion.

Sihar said that he had advised Musharraf that he should
avail the opportunity of "a safe exit" provided by Zardari and
step down in the larger interests of the nation and stability
of democracy, as the country could not sustain any more
conflict.

"Enough is enough. Now is the right time for Mr.
Musharraf to quit," the PML(Q) lawmaker was quoted as saying
by The News.

Former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, one of
Musharraf's steadfast allies, said the President should step
down as the ruling coalition would win the "numbers game" if
an impeachment motion is moved in parliament and the army
would not support any move to dissolve the house.

Senior PML-N leader Ishaq Dar said from Monday onwards,
the provincial assemblies of Punjab, North West Frontier
Province, Sindh and Balochistan will pass resolutions asking
Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Once this process is completed, the impeachment
proceedings will get underway in the National Assembly or
lower house of Parliament, he said.

In a fresh salvo against Musharraf, Zardari accused him
of "misappropriating" a whopping USD 700 million of American
aid to Islamabad for supporting the war on terror and said
"rogue" ISI members could have benefitted from it.

The US, which had protected Musharraf against the
onslaught of the PPP-led government which came to power after
the Feb 18 elections, bluntly telling the ruling coalition
that it should concentrate on other important tasks rather
than the President's ouster, has so far not taken sides and
termed the impeachment move as an "internal matter".

"Our grand old Musharraf has not been passing on all the
1 billion dollar a year that the Americans have been giving
for the armed forces.... We're talking about 700 million
dollars a year missing. The rest has been taken by 'Mush' for
some scheme or other and we've got to find it," 54-year-old
Zardari told the 'The Sunday Times'.

The PPP leader, who had refrained from openly confronting
Musharraf till now despite pressure from ally Nawaz Sharif's
PML(N), said he had advised the president through a "common
friend" to resign two months ago but he did not pay heed.

"Through a common friend, General Durrani, I had advised
President Musharraf to resign two months back. But the
President gave no reply," Zardari said.

Anti-Musharraf parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami
and some Balochistan-based nationalist parties currently
sitting in opposition benches in the Senate, have a total of
274 members - 235 in the National Assembly and 39 in the
Senate - which is short of the magic number of 295.

According to the latest count after by-polls in June, the
PPP has 124 members in the assembly, PML-N 92, Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam six and Awami National Party 13.

In the opposition PML-Q-dominated Senate, the PPP has 10
members, PML-N four, the Jamiat and its allies 18 and the ANP
two, plus five others. Several dissident PML-Q members and
Baloch groups in the Senate are expected to throw their weight
behind the impeachment motion.

Observers also believe the 27 independent members in
both houses of parliament, particularly those from tribal
areas, will play a crucial role.

A joint meeting of the PPP and PML-N has been summoned
Monday to discuss matters related to the impeachment motion,
Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.

She said the coalition had done "comprehensive planning
and concrete homework" while preparing the chargesheet against
Musharraf. "We want to avoid any ambiguity and
misunderstanding over the issues." PTI