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Islamabad: Pakistan's all-powerful army chief of staff will ask President Pervez Musharraf to resign from office within a week, a senior government official said on Friday.
The claim was supported by a former military aide to the president, who said that the army's leadership wanted Musharraf to resign and be spared the humiliation of impeachment.
The civilian government has intensified its seven-month power struggle with the president by announcing that it will begin impeachment proceedings against him tomorrow.
General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, the army chief of staff, who has been locked in talks with his senior commanders for the past two days, has publicly declared that he is neutral on Pakistan's domestic politics.
Safe passage
However, the former military aide to Musharraf said: "The army is neutral, but is expecting him to resign. It will then influence his honourable safe passage as the army's senior leadership would not want him to be punished."
A senior official from the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP), a partner in the ruling coalition, said that the army has "whispered in Musharraf's ear that it is time to leave".
"Over the next few days they will make it clear to him that a protracted battle against impeachment is not in Pakistan's interests," the official added.
The official said his party instigated the impeachment because Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, had begun to use intelligence agencies to plot against the government. He alleged that Musharraf had tried to use a former PPP leader, Amin Fahim, to "instigate a rebellion within the party".
"Washington was still hoping that the PPP would work with Musharraf, but he was not working with us," he said.
"America wants Pakistan to be effectively governed and so has realised that the domestic struggle has to be resolved," he said.
Musharraf's allies Friday said he would defend himself against impeachment, if necessary by dissolving parliament and sending Pakistan into further turmoil.
Shujaat Hussain, the head of Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), which lost elections in February, said that dissolving parliament would be "unfortunate" but it may be "necessary".
He said that he had evidence that the move to impeach the president was made after the coalition partners struck a deal to hand the presidency to Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP leader and widower of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
Hussain said that the presidential candidacy of Zardari, who was granted an amnesty by Musharraf absolving him of corruption charges, would be opposed by the army. Asked about the possibility of Zardari running for president, a PPP spokesman said: "I have no knowledge of that but Pakistan would be better served by a civilian president with a knowledge of democracy."
- The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2008
Islamabad (Reuters) An old political ally of President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday Pakistan's embattled former army chief will not use his powers to dissolve the National Assembly to pre-empt moves to impeach him.
Facing what could be his final challenge, Musharraf called on his foes in the assembly to convene tomorrow, knowing the country's four-month-old civilian coalition intends to force him into a confidence vote or impeach him.
After meeting Musharraf yesterday, senior politician Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain removed lingering fears he will undo the transition to democracy after nine years of military rule by dismissing the assembly.
"He doesn't have any such intention," Hussain, who stepped down as head of the pro-Musharraf party after its defeat in a February election, told the Express television news channel.
The election was won by the Pakistan People's Party of two time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated while campaigning in December.
Bhutto's husband and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, then formed a fragile coalition with Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf overthrew in a coup in 1999, and on Thursday they jointly announced plans to impeach the president.
The United States, Western allies, and regional neighbours, India and Afghanistan fear a prolonged constitutional crisis will lead to instability in the nuclear-armed state.
They also worry Pakistan will be distracted away from fighting Al Qaida, the Taliban and other Islamist factions whose influence has spread across the northwest of the Muslim country.
Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, has not made any public response since Zardari and Sharif declared their plan on Thursday to oust him. Some allies say Musharraf won't go without a fight, though he has said previously he would quit rather than be impeached.
His foes say they're confident of getting the two-thirds majority in parliament to oust him and saw Musharraf bowing to the inevitable.
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