Zardari & Sharif: We will impeach Musharraf

“We will present a chargesheet against Musharraf,” Zardari said without giving a timeframe for the impeachment of the 64-year-old beleaguered President.

On the issue of judges sacked by Musharraf during the Emergency rule in 2007, the PPP chief said all the deposed justices will be reinstated immediately after the impeachment of the Presidency.

Echoing Zardari’s views, Sharif said he was in ‘total agreement’ with his ally on the decision of impeaching Musharraf, whose ouster the former Premier’s party has been demanding for a long time.

Zardari blamed Musharraf for the economic woes of Pakistan and said his policies had ‘eroded’ the trust of the nation.

Earlier, an unnamed PPP Cabinet member, who participated in discussions between the two parties, was quoted as saying by Dawn News channel that the ruling coalition is expected to move an impeachment motion against Musharraf in Parliament on August 11.

Impeaching a President requires a two-thirds majority support of the assembly and the Senate. “We are optimistic that we will succeed,” Zardari said expressing the hope that 90 per cent of the lawmakers would support the ruling coalition.

Sharif said he fully supported the move to impeach Musharraf.

Tariq Azim, a spokesman for the main pro-Musharraf party PML-Q, said that it would oppose any impeachment of the President. He said the ruling coalition did not have the numbers for the purpose but conceded ‘things could go either way’.

Azim said there were more pressing issues facing the nation like runaway inflation and sharp rise in the food prices.

While the ruling coalition has a comfortable majority in the Assembly, Musharraf’s supporters have about half the seats in the Upper House Senate.

No President has been impeached in Pakistan’s history so far.

On the issue of judges sacked by Musharraf during the Emergency rule in 2007, the PPP chief said all the deposed justices will be reinstated immediately after the impeachment of the Presidency.

The coalition had been earlier split on how to go about in the matter of impeaching Musharraf and to implement the assurance on reinstating the deposed judges.

Sharif said the reinstatement of judges would be done strictly according to the Murree Declaration, an agreement between the two parties which envisages the restoration of the justices through a parliamentary resolution and an executive order issued by the Prime Minister.

There was no official word from the Presidency on the coalition’s move to impeach Musharraf. The President had told his supporters in the Opposition on Wednesday that he would use all his constitutional powers to oppose any move to impeach him.

Asked what the coalition would do if Musharraf used his power to dissolve Parliament, Sharif said: “This is not the Pakistan of the 1980s and 1990s that anyone can remove an elected government. Pakistan has changed. The nation, people and Parliament will not be willing to accept 58(2b).”

Zardari added: “We have the votes, the courage and the political will.”

Replying to another question on whether the coalition had considered the support of the Pakistan Army and the US administration for Musharraf, Sharif said: “It is our internal matter and I think we should not be seeking any no-objection certificate from outside forces to deal with our internal issues.”

Zardari also requested Sharif to reconsider his decision to withdraw the PML-N’s ministers from the cabinet, and the PLM-N chief said he would decide on this issue by Friday.

The PML-N had pulled its nine ministers out of the cabinet in May after the government failed to meet two deadlines to reinstate the deposed judges.

Noorul Haq Qadri, a representative of a grouping of parliamentarians from the tribal areas, Rehmatullah Kakar of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party, who were also present at the news conference, said they too supported the decisions made by the PPP and PML-N.

The coalition said it would implement the Charter of Democracy signed by the PPP and PML-N in 2006 and work together to steer Pakistan ‘on to the path of constitutional governance, restoring the supremacy of the constitution, independence of the judiciary, rule of law and to avert the impending economic crisis’.

The coalition will also fight the ‘menace of price hike, unemployment, poverty and load shedding’.

The alliance agreed to address the ‘volatile situation’ in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the North West Frontier Province, which have witnessed a spurt in violence by the Taliban, with ‘policies shaped by the legitimacy of consensus in Parliament’.

The coalition also said it would restore ‘genuine democracy’ to the country, by repealing the controversial 17th amendment of the Constitution which gives sweeping powers to the President.