Musharraf faces impeachment push in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's ruling coalition government agreed yesterday to try to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, setting up a major showdown between the former military chief and the newly elected civilian government.

Leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction called for a no-confidence vote in parliament against Musharraf and said they could begin official impeachment proceedings in the next few days.

Pakistan Peoples Party cochair Asif Ali Zardari said that Musharraf's nearly nine-year rule had thrown the country into turmoil and that the time had come to break the six-month political deadlock that has paralyzed Pakistan since the civilian-dominated coalition came to power in February elections.

"His policies have weakened the federation and eroded the trust of the nation in national institutions," Zardari said at a news conference with Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction leader and former prime minister. "The coalition believes it has become imperative to move for impeachment."

Sharif and Zardari announced their decision to try to oust Musharraf about three months after Sharif pulled his party out of government cabinet positions in protest over Zardari's refusal to immediately reinstate about 60 judges fired last year by the president. A long-simmering dispute over how to restore the judges threatened to permanently divide the two ruling parties and brought the country to a virtual standstill amid one of the worst economic crises in its history.

The impasse was apparently broken in several days of marathon meetings. Speaking together yesterday for the first time in months, Zardari and Sharif said they would push for the restoration of Pakistan's fractured judiciary and bring deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry back to the bench if Musharraf is impeached.

In other countries, Musharraf has been viewed alternately as a political pariah and bold statesman in a region that has suffered instability for more than three decades. His profile rose considerably after he became one of the first Muslim leaders to ally himself with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He has been a key ally in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, providing operational bases and logistical support for the U.S. military and arresting al-Qaeda figures within Pakistan's borders. Yet, doubts have lingered about the sincerity of his loyalty to the U.S. mission.

Recently, Pakistan has come under heavy pressure from the Bush administration to rein in Islamist insurgents in its tribal areas along the Afghan border, while Pakistan's powerful intelligence agencies have been accused of aiding Taliban in Afghanistan.

The coalition has called for members of Pakistan's four provincial assemblies to move for a vote of no confidence on Musharraf's tenure in office. Impeachment proceedings would be a separate action. A combined two-thirds majority vote in both the National Assembly and Senate would be required to oust him from the presidency.

Should the coalition succeed in doing that, the move would be a first in the nuclear-armed nation's 61-year history to remove a head of state through this parliamentary maneuver. In a sign of the seriousness of the crisis, Musharraf canceled at the last minute yesterday a scheduled trip to Beijing for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

Musharraf, 64, who stepped down as army chief in December, remained silent yesterday, as the country braced for the possibility that the president could move to dissolve parliament under a controversial amendment adopted during his rule. The president met with a top constitutional expert, according to local news reports, and was expected to meet with Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, chief of the Pakistani military.

Musharraf's allies indicated that he would fight the attempt to oust him.

Musharraf came to power in October 1999 after mounting a military coup against Sharif. His political fortunes shifted dramatically last year after he suspended the deposed chief justice from the bench. He lost further political capital after he ordered security forces to raid the historic Red Mosque in Islamabad, where militants had holed up. More than 100 people died.

In November, he declared a state of emergency and placed dozens of judges under house arrest. Public support for Musharraf plummeted after the Dec. 27 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and opposition leader.