Musharraf facing plan to remove him

Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf cancelled his trip to the Olympic opening ceremony today faced with an opposition plot to impeach him.

The country’s ruling parliamentary coalition is to demand he seek a vote of confidence or be formally removed from office.

The plan was conceived during marathon talks between party leaders Asif Ali Zardari and ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Mr Musharraf, who overthrew Mr Sharif’s government in a bloodless coup in 1999 and then dominated Pakistan for eight years, was sidelined when he formed a coalition government with Mr Zardari in February.

They have a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, so Mr Musharraf would struggle to win a confidence vote, adding to the pressure on him to resign.

Soon after news broke of the coalition’s decision, the Foreign Office announced that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would now represent Pakistan at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said that if Mr Musharraf seeks a vote of confidence and loses, it sends a political signal of his weakness, but constitutionally it would not lead to his removal from office.

If he refuses to take such a vote, MPs could include that when drawing up impeachment charges against him, Rais said.

“There is a strong likelihood, but not certainty, that the ruling coalition can impeach him,” he said.

Impeaching a president requires a two-thirds majority support of MPs in both houses of Parliament. Musharraf loyalists maintain the coalition would struggle to muster it.

“He (Musharraf) will be asked by us to seek the vote of confidence from Parliament, as promised by him while contesting the presidential elections,” said one member of Zardari’s party, the largest in the coalition.

He said the coalition had also agreed to restore judges sacked by Mr Musharraf when he declared a state of emergency and rounded up thousands of opponents last November.

Mr Sharif has been more aggressive than Mr Zardari in seeking Mr Musharraf’s removal and has repeatedly demanded the restoration of the judges.

Rifts over the judges and how to handle Mr Musharraf have weakened the four-month-old government and hampered its efforts to formulate policies to counter Islamic militancy and a slew of economic problems.

The president, a Western ally, has in recent weeks made more public appearances and comments which is seen by some in Pakistan as an attempt to show he remains a political force. He has appeared intent to serve out his five-year term.

While he has little say in the day-to-day running of government and has ceded his control of the powerful army, Mr Musharraf retains the constitutional power to dissolve Parliament. Analysts say he probably retains some influence with the military.