Fri, Aug 8 10:29 PM
Islamabad, Aug 8 (PTI) Pakistan's ruling coalition today reviewed progress made on various steps involved in impeaching President Pervez Musharraf, at a high-level meeting chaired by PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. The PPP and its ally PML-N yesterday announced that the ruling coalition will move to impeach Musharraf for incompetence, for violating the constitution and pursuing policies over the past eight years that have brought Pakistan to the brink of an economic crisis.
The meeting of the "Task Committee" of the coalition parties held in Zardari's residence reviewed various steps involved in the impeachment process, which will start next week with the adoption of resolutions by the four provincial assemblies urging the federal government to ask Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence from parliament. The resolutions will further ask the federal government to immediately impeach the President in case he fails to secure a vote of confidence, a statement issued by PPP said.
A session of the National Assembly has been convened from August 11 as "part of the exercise to impeach the President". The meeting also assigned different tasks to various members to be completed early next week, the statement said.
Under Article 47 of the constitution, the President can be removed from office on the ground of mental incapacity or impeached on the charge of gross misconduct or of violating the constitution. The impeachment resolution has to be voted upon in a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate and requires a two-thirds majority of the total membership of parliament.
The meeting was attended by PML-N president and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Ishaq Dar and Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan from the PML-N and Raza Rabbani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman, Farooq Naek, Khursheed Shah and Farhatullah Babar from the PPP. PTI.
