‘Musharraf’s impeachment is going to open a Pandora’s box’

Musharraf dominated Pakistan for eight years and became a close US ally after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but ceded control of the powerful army last year and has been largely sidelined since coalition parties trounced his allies in February parliamentary elections.

Though deeply disliked by Pakistanis in general, Musharraf has insisted he will serve out the five-year term he was elected to in a contentious parliamentary vote in October, and he has shown no signs of giving up without a fight after the impeachment plans were announced.

“This decision about President Musharraf’s impeachment is going to open a Pandora’s box,” Mushahid Hussain, a senior figure in the main pro-Musharraf party, said on Friday, adding “it is not going to be that easy.”

Hussain insisted his party will defend the president, while another Musharraf ally, Tariq Azim, said the coalition can expect “many legal challenges.”

Azim suggested the coalition was not following constitutional guidelines on giving the notice of impeachment. “So any notice given by them for President Musharraf’s impeachment can be challenged in the Supreme Court,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, leading newspapers suggested the president simply resign and avoid becoming the first Pakistani president to get impeached.

“There is no doubt he will fight back, but given the odds against him and the unity shown by his political opponents inside and outside parliament he would be well advised to decide to bow out gracefully,” Dawn, a leading English-language paper, said in an editorial that declared the president’s “political fate has been sealed.”

The Nation, another top English-language paper, said a voluntary resignation would “save the country a lot of trouble.”

Analysts say the ruling coalition, which has struggled with pressing economic and security problems it inherited, is not assured of victory. It requires a two-thirds majority of lawmakers to vote for the impeachment in a joint session of both houses of Parliament.

The coalition parties currently controls some 236 of the 339 seats in the National Assembly, or lower house, and as many as 51 of the 100 seats in the Senate, or upper house. That leaves it at least six seats short of what it needs to win, although it could gain the support of some of the 29 independent lawmakers and defectors from the pro-Musharraf parties.

Ruling party chief Asif Ali Zardari expressed confidence the coalition would succeed. He declared Thursday that seeking impeachment was “good news for democracy” in Pakistan.

The decision followed marathon negotiations between Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister in Musharraf’s 1999 coup, and leads the second-largest coalition party.

Their alliance forged after the February election victory was at risk of collapse over differences over how to restore judges fired by Musharraf last year and whether to oust him.

The decision to move against Musharraf appears to have eased the tensions, and Sharif’s party was expected to decide Friday to rejoin the Cabinet, which it left amid the internal coalition disagreements.

Sharif said the process of impeachment would start “in the next few days.” Provincial assemblies will first be called on to demand Musharraf take a vote of confidence from lawmakers.

“If the president does not get the vote of confidence, then immediately with it, impeachment proceedings will start,” Zardari’s party spokesman Fahartullah Babar said.

Musharraf supporters accused the coalition of trying to deflect attention from their failure during their more than four months in power to address mounting economic and security problems.

Inflation in Pakistan is running at more than 20 percent, and the country suffers hours of power outages daily. Food prices have soared. Worries over Islamic extremism are deepening.

The Bush administration, Musharraf’s Western international ally, offered a measured response to the coalition’s impeachment plans. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Thursday the US wanted any actions in Pakistan to be consistent with the country’s constitution and with the rule of law,

“It is the responsibility of Pakistanis’ leaders to decide on a way forward to succeed as a modern and democratic country,” Gallegos said.