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Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will not resign, his spokesman said on Monday, as parliament convened to discuss the impeachment of the key US anti-terror ally.
The former general, who seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999, faced further pressure when the biggest of Pakistan's provincial assemblies passed a no-confidence motion against him.
The ruling coalition said it was finalising charges against Musharraf after announcing last week that it would seek his impeachment, but the president's spokesman dismissed talk that he would quit to avoid the process.
"There is no reason that he should resign. Everything they are saying is false, so why should he resign?" presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP.
The spokesman however declined to comment on Musharraf's plans. His options include trying to defeat impeachment in parliament, dissolving parliament or declaring a state of emergency.
The coalition, which swept to power in general elections in February, needs a two-thirds majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament to impeach him. It would have to rely on independents to make up the numbers.
It would be the first time in Pakistan's history that a president has been impeached.
The national assembly, or lower house of parliament, met on Monday -- -- Musharraf's 65th birthday -- to discuss the impeachment issue but the charges against him would likely be filed later in the week, officials said.
"The work of the impeachment committee is almost complete. It is giving finishing touches to the charge sheet," said Farzana Raja, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.
"We gave him a chance to resign, we gave him a few months. But we have come to the conclusion that now the people of Pakistan, through their elected representatives in the parliament, will have to do that," she told AFP.
The coalition is apparently trying to give Musharraf time to step down without facing the humiliation of impeachment -- as well as to prevent the coalition going through the uncertainty of a parliamentary vote.
But it is also seeking to crank up the pressure on him with non-binding no-confidence votes in the four provincial assemblies, the first of which was in powerful Punjab province on Monday.
"The resolution is adopted with a heavy majority and the mandate of the house," provincial assembly speaker Rana Mohammed Iqbal said after the vote in the eastern city of Lahore.
Punjab is also the stronghold of coalition leader Nawaz Sharif, a former premier who was ousted by Musharraf nine years ago.
The resolution said that Musharraf was "unfit to hold the office of the president by virtue of being guilty of violating the constitution of Pakistan and of gross misconduct."
It said he should seek a national confidence vote or resign.
On Sunday, some allies joined the coalition calls for Musharaf to go.
Sardar Bahadur Khan, an MP from Musharraf's main ally, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said more than 25 MPs from the party wanted Musharraf to resign.
But the real key to Musharraf's survival is likely to be whether he gets the support of the powerful army, analysts say. He stood down as chief of the military in November last year.
The military has ruled Pakistan for more than half its 61-year history but Musharraf's successor, General Ashfaq Kayani, has expressed a desire to keep the army out of politics.
If he gets Kayani's support, Musharraf could try to dissolve parliament and head off impeachment. But if Kayani views the impeachment process as too humiliating, he could lean on Musharraf to stand down.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Pervez Musharraf
AFP
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