PAKISTAN:PAKISTAN'S PRESIDENT, Pervez Musharraf, is facing the prospect of being thrown out of office after the country's fragile coalition government yesterday announced plans to impeach him.
The move plunged nuclear-armed Pakistan into fresh political turmoil, as it grapples with a biting economic downturn and a security crisis as Taliban-inspired militants take over its border region with Afghanistan and stage suicide bomb attacks across the country.
Mr Musharraf is believed to have told supporters that he will fight the impeachment. He is plannning his response with advisers, and finally cancelled an on-off trip to the Olympics' opening ceremony.
"We elected him and now we will support him to defeat this move," said Kamil Ali Agha, a leader of the main pro-Musharraf party. Pakistan's military commanders also reportedly met yesterday, and the army's reaction of the army, which until recently was led by the president, is anxiously awaited.
The breakthrough for the coalition, which has been able to agree on little since taking office four months ago, came after three days of talks between the Pakistan People's party, led by Asif Zardari, and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N. "We want to make a new Pakistan," Mr Zardari said in Islamabad. "We have the votes and the political will."
To instigate an impeachment, the coalition must prove that the president has subverted the constitution or is guilty of gross misconduct. Mr Musharraf's dismissal in November of the judiciary and suspension of the constitution for six weeks may form the basis of this.
Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, and the numbers are close. Musharraf's trump card may now be to use his power to dismiss parliament before it gets a chance to move the impeachment motion, under a constitutional mechanism that was used three times in the 1990s to sack governments. If the president believes that the army is with him, he may be tempted.
Impeachment has never been used in Pakistan before and there are fears that it could provoke another military intervention. "This decision was taken in haste. They are playing with fire," said Amin Fahim, an estranged senior member of the People's party.
The Pakistani military has indicated that it wishes to stay out of politics following Mr Musharraf's decision to give up the job of army chief in November, when he clung on to his other role of president.
It is unclear whether the men in uniform, who have staged multiple coups, will stand aside while a former army chief is humiliated and dragged out of office.
Mr Sharif was thrown out of office by Mr Musharraf in 1999, and many believe he is bent on revenge. Until now, Mr Zardari has been reluctant to confront the president, procrastinating on a commitment to restore the judiciary.
- Guardian service