Musharraf Vows to Stay in Office

"There are two gentlemen who are sitting far outside Parliament who don't see eye to eye and who hold the destiny of Pakistan and 160 million people in their hands," said Mushahid Hussain, a senator and leading member of Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q party. "They're not showing leadership. There is this obsession with individuals rather than issues."

Until recently, Sharif has played bad cop to Zardari's good cop, with Sharif calling for Musharraf's immediate and unconditional ouster and with Zardari being more reserved in his criticism. But last week, Zardari called Musharraf a "relic of the past." And as newspaper headlines have trumpeted rumors of Musharraf's possible departure, other members of the Pakistan People's Party have been equally vocal in their calls for his impeachment.

"Our thinking is that the people of Pakistan no longer want Musharraf, and it would be best for him to read the political writing on the wall rather than forcing the political parties to move to impeach him," said Farahatullah Babar, a spokesman for the Pakistan People's Party. "He is a source of political instability."

On Tuesday, a Parliament session erupted into chaos when members of Sharif's party called for Musharraf's arrest and trial on treason charges amid shouts of "Go, Musharraf, go," and a member of the Pakistan People's Party apparently made a veiled threat to take violent action against the president.

But Musharraf is not without his supporters. Marvi Memon, a newly elected member of Parliament, staunchly defended him during the riotous session. In an interview, she dismissed the suggestion that Musharraf was preparing to resign, saying, "The president is a fighter."

Still, pressure on Musharraf to step down appears to be mounting in other quarters. The military he once led has been reshuffled since the appointment of his replacement, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani. Rumors of Musharraf's imminent resignation intensified last week when Kiyani named Brig. Faheem Rao as commander of the army's Triple-One Brigade, the unit charged with maintaining presidential security, replacing a longtime Musharraf loyalist, Brig. Aasim Salim Bajwa.

Calls for the ruling coalition parties led by Sharif and Zardari to impeach Musharraf are expected to spike Tuesday when thousands of lawyers kick off a march from the southern city of Karachi to Islamabad to demand restoration of the judiciary. In recent days, several former Musharraf supporters have vowed to join the march, including a group of former servicemen believed to number in the thousands.

Retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a political analyst, said the protest would probably ignite a firestorm of political unrest.

"If the lawyers movement starts on the 10th, then there will be stark choices facing the leadership in Parliament," Masood said.

Musharraf, for his part, said Saturday that he is prepared to continue working with the coalition government. "I don't want to be part of Pakistan's downfall," he said.