Making A Difference

The Exit Sign

The numbers don't look good. First Pak president to be impeached?

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The Exit Sign
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Mush's Options
  • Split political parties and woo to ensure impeachment resolution doesn't get 295 votes in a joint session of Parliament
  • Refer impeachment resolution to the SC and request it to halt the process. But unlikely to get relief from the judiciary.
  • Dissolve the National Assembly and appoint a caretaker government. Bound to push Pakistan into turmoil.
  • Resign before the impeachment resolution is voted. Should be his most honourable course.

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Outlook
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Double up: Sharif, Zardari at the Aug 5 press conference

Conversely, the president has to win the support of 148 members to ensure the resolution against him fails. Some fear that Musharraf could split the political parties or wean independents to his side. But not only has the government launched a concerted campaign against him, PPP insiders say Zardari has told foreign diplomats, including the American ambassador, that he's willing to grant amnesty to Musharraf should he decide to resign. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Outlook, "It's time he opted for a voluntary exit...saved himself from being indicted for the illegal and repressive actions he committed during his protracted misrule."

Apart from resigning or defeating the impeachment resolution, the president has two other options. For one, he could move a reference to his hand-picked Supreme Court judges to halt the parliamentary proceedings against him. However, Musharraf's principal legal advisor, Sharifuddin Pirzada, has reportedly told him that the Supreme Court ruled way back in 1995 that a reference couldn't be filed before it without the prime minister's consent.

Musharraf could also take recourse to Art 58(2)B that empowers the president to dissolve the National Assembly. But law minister Farooq Naek says the NA can't be dissolved so soon after the elections, especially at a time when the two major political parties are together in a coalition government and the army high command has already distanced itself from the president. Leaders like Naek rule out this option because such a move could unleash a political tsunami in Pakistan.

Yet some believe the army won't abandon its former chief, nor expose Kiyani to face humiliation at the hands of those "bloody civilians". Defence minister Ahmed Mukhtar points out though that the army has been totally silent on the current political imbroglio because Gen Kiyani wants to depoliticise the army to restore its credibility. He had also refused to intervene in the February '08 elections to save the PML(Q) from the crushing defeat. "Whatever the pro-Musharraf circles say, the fact is that Gen Kiyani is seen and respected as someone with a professional orientation who wants the army to take a back seat when it comes to political issues," he added. Former isi chief Lt Gen (retd) Hameed Gul agrees, "If the president decides not to resign and confronts Parliament instead, the army could even make him quit as a conflict between the presidency and parliament is not in Pakistan's interest." Ultimately, democracy's fate depends on the army's neutrality, as always.

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