Pakistani Leader's Next Step Uncertain

Aides Say Musharraf 'Has No Intention Of Stepping Down'

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 17 -- A day before Pakistan's Parliament returns to session, signs were mixed Sunday on whether President Pervez Musharraf plans to step down in the face of impeachment.

Officials in the ruling coalition said they have finalized charges against the president and plan to move for his impeachment in Parliament this week. Coalition officials had said last week that they would file the charges Monday, but they were vague about the timetable Sunday, presumably to allow for negotiations over Musharraf's resignation.

Aides close to Musharraf, once a top U.S. ally, said repeatedly over the weekend that the president would fight his impeachment. A spokesman for Musharraf said again Sunday that he has "no intention of stepping down."

Yet many here in Islamabad, the capital, said they do not think the president can withstand the intensifying pressure to resign much longer.

Mushahid Hussain, a top member of Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said he is convinced the president will resign, but on his own terms.

"I think Musharraf will follow the Nixon formula," Hussain said. "It's beyond the numbers game now. Mr. Musharraf would like to go down in history as someone who fought the charges against him and left office with dignity."

The two parties in the ruling coalition, Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League-N, called on Aug. 7 for Musharraf's impeachment. Pakistan's four provincial assemblies endorsed the move last week.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, has said Musharraf should be tried for treason if Parliament votes to impeach him. Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 military coup, has publicly rejected the idea of guaranteeing safe passage for Musharraf.

The co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, Asif Ali Zardari, has publicly remained circumspect about whether Musharraf should be granted immunity from prosecution.

A senior Pakistani official said negotiations between Musharraf's representatives and the government had stalled over his demand for indemnity from future civil or criminal prosecution. The official said the government had rejected Musharraf's insistence on a written agreement guaranteed by at least two unnamed other governments determined to be "friends" of Pakistan.

Until recently, the Bush administration has been a strong backer of Musharraf. Last week, however, the White House and State Department appeared to distance themselves from him, saying his impeachment was an internal matter for the coalition government to decide. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States has no plans to offer asylum to Musharraf.

Musharraf began to lose his purchase on power last year after he suspended, and later dismissed, Pakistan Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and fired about 60 other judges. The president's support plummeted last November after he declared a state of emergency and fell further following the assassination of his top political rival, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in December.

Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief late last year, was largely sidelined after voters handed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party a resounding victory in parliamentary elections in February. Since then, Musharraf has appeared on national television only twice and has yet to appear before Parliament.

If the impeachment charges go forward, it would be the first time in Pakistan's history that a head of state was removed by a rare parliamentary action. Coalition officials say they are confident that they have the two-thirds majority required in the National Assembly and Senate to remove Musharraf from office.