- guardian.co.uk,
- Thursday August 07 2008 16:39 BST
- Article history
Pervez Musharraf is threatened with impeachment if he does not hold a vote of confidence in his presidency. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP
Pakistan's fragile coalition government today announced plans to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, throwing the country into new political turmoil.
Musharraf was today plotting his response with advisers and finally cancelled an on-off trip to the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. Pakistan's top military commanders also reportedly met today and the reaction of the army - which was, until recently, led by Musharraf - will now be key.
The breakthrough for the coalition - which has been able to agree on little since coming to office four months ago - came after three days of talks between the parties that came to power after elections in February, led by Asif Zardari of the Pakistan People's party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).
"We want to make a new Pakistan," said Zardari, sitting with his coalition partners at a press conference in Islamabad. "We have the votes and the political will."
The coalition must prove that the president has subverted the constitution or is guilty of gross misconduct. Musharraf's decision to dismiss the country's judiciary and suspend the constitution for a six-week period last November may form the basis of the impeachment.
But impeachment will not be easy; it requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, and while the elections brought Musharraf's opponents to power, the numbers are close. The bigger immediate concern is Musharraf's constitutional power to dismiss the parliament, under a mechanism that was used three times in the 1990s to sack governments.
If the president believes that the army is with him, he may be tempted to use this authority. Impeachment has never been used in Pakistan before and there are fears that it could provoke another military intervention.
"This decision was taken in haste. They are playing with fire," said Amin Fahim, an estranged senior member of the PPP. "Every action has a reaction."
The president has repeatedly said he will not allow himself to be forced from power. Earlier this year, Musharraf - whose autobiography is pointedly called In the Line of Fire - warned that "I cannot preside over the downfall of Pakistan".
The Pakistan military has indicated that it wishes to stay out of politics following Musharraf's decision to give up the job of army chief in November, when he stubbornly clung on to his other role of president.
However, it is unclear whether the men in uniform, who have staged multiple coups in Pakistan's turbulent history, will stand aside while a former army chief is humiliated and dragged out of office.
Sharif said today that he was confident that "this is not the Pakistan of the 80s and 90s". Zardari said that it was the wish of his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December last year, that her death would become "a catalyst of change".
Sharif's current politics are based on two themes: removing Musharraf and restoring to office the judges he sacked in November. However, many remain sceptical about Zardari's sincerity about either of those causes.
In March Zardari made another dramatic announcement, also sitting alongside Sharif, that he would reinstate the judiciary. After four months in government, those judges remain out of office, and the PPP has come up with a series of reasons why it could not happen yet. However, impeachment is a far more complicated and risky manoeuvre than bringing the judges back.
The PPP came to power after months of careful secret negotiations with Musharraf and many believe that it continues to work on the basis of a "deal" that it forged with him. Under that arrangement, dozens of criminal charges against Zardari and Bhutto were dropped.
"Asif [Zardari] and Pervez Musharraf are inseparable, for their own self-interest," said Iqbal Haider, a former law minister under Bhutto's government of the 1990s. "Impeachment is a device to distract attention from the restoration of the judges."
In the past, Musharraf has enjoyed strong support from Washington, as a major ally in the "war on terror", which has given Pakistan billions of dollars in military aid. But it is now widely thought that he can no longer rely on the White House to bail him out.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Pakistán: coalición de gobierno acuerda destituir a Musharraf
Se iniciará el procedimiento, anunció oficialmente el líder de la alianza, Asif Alí Zardari.
AFP
Publicado: 07/08/2008 08:38
Islamabad. La coalición de gobierno de Pakistán va a iniciar el procedimiento de destitución del presidente Pervez Musharraf, anunció oficialmente este jueves el líder de la alianza política, Asif Alí Zardari.
"Tenemos buenas noticias para la democracia. La coalición cree que es imperativo actuar para lograr la destitución ('impeachment') del general Musharraf", dijo Zardari en una rueda de prensa.
El acuerdo llega después de tres días de conversaciones entre los líderes de la coalición, Nawaz Sharif, ex primer ministro, y Alí Zardari, viudo de la ex primera ministra asesinada Benazir Bhutto.
Un alto responsable de la alianza gubernamental anunció que "los partidos de la coalición alcanzaron un principio de acuerdo para lanzar una moción de destitución contra el presidente Musharraf".
"Hemos acordado destituir al presidente", había indicado un miembro del partido de Sharif, la Liga Musulmana de Pakistán-Nawaz (PML-N).
Musharraf llegó al poder en octubre de 1999 mediante un golpe de Estado militar y emprendió una carrera armamentística nuclear apoyado por Estados Unidos, que ha sido uno de sus aliados clave desde los ataques del 11 de septiembre.
Pero su popularidad bajó después de que, en noviembre de 2007, destituyó a los jueces de la Corte Suprema y declaró el estado de excepción para asegurar su reelección como presidente.
Musharraf perdió las elecciones legislativas del 18 de febrero y el presidente cohabita desde entonces en un ambiente tenso con un gobierno que antes estaba en la oposición.
Hasta ahora la coalición se mostraba dividida sobre la destitución del jefe de Estado: mientras el PML-N estaba a favor, el Partido del Pueblo Pakistaní (PPP) del viudo de Bhutto no veía mal su permanencia en el poder si se le retiraban ciertas prerrogativas.
El principal conflicto entre Musharraf y el gobierno es el de los jueces de la Corte Suprema, en particular la suerte del ex presidente Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhri.
La coalición en el poder ha prometido restablecer en sus funciones a los jueces destituidos por Musharraf en 2007.
Pero el presidente, relegido de manera controvertida el pasado octubre, teme que estos magistrados se pronuncien de nuevo sobre la legitimidad de su mandato.
Si el Parlamento restituye a los jueces, la Corte Suprema podrá, en teoría, volver a juzgar de ilegal el nuevo mandato de cinco años de Musharraf y comenzar un proceso de destitución.
Ahora hay que elaborar un "acta de acusación" contra Musharraf y someterla al Parlamento, donde debe recibir el apoyo de al menos la mitad de los diputados.
Después, el presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, la cámara baja del Parlamento, deberá informar al jefe de Estado y pedirle que se defienda.
En teoría, a Musharraf le queda el derecho constitucional de disolver el Parlamento y volver a imponer el estado de excepción.
El presidente paquistaní sigue disfrutando del apoyo de Estados Unidos, que lo considera un aliado clave en su "guerra contra el terrorismo", principalmente en el vecino Afganistán.
Para evitar toda polémica, Musharraf canceló su viaje a Pekín y será el primer ministro, Yusuf Raza Gilani, quien asista a la apertura de los Juegos Olímpicos, anunció el ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores este jueves.
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