ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s major political allies said yesterday they had advised the embattled leader either to resign or face impeachment for which the ruling coalition is set to start proceedings when the lower house of Parliament opens early next week.
“I don’t think that dissolving Parliament would be the best option for him. No one in the country would support the action,” said Mushahid Hussain, a senior leader in Musharraf’s political backer, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
“He is left with two options; either to face the impeachment motion like a man or resign and go home quietly,” he added. “We have asked him for the latter option.”
The PML-Q head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also said that he had notified the president that if he dissolved the Parliament his party would stop supporting him.
Coalition leaders Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former Premier Benazir Bhutto, and the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose parties defeated the PML-Q in Feb. 18 elections, announced on Thursday that they would try Musharraf in the Parliament.
An official from the ruling coalition yesterday said the country’s lower house of Parliament had scheduled a meeting for tomorrow to begin impeachment proceedings against Musharraf.
