??The ruling coalition Thursday announced that it would remove Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan through his impeachment in parliament. Addressing a joint conference, coalition leaders including Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari said that a charge sheet would be presented in parliament against Musharraf.? Zardari read out the joint communiqué that was issued after three days of extensive talks among the coalition leaders. The declaration said that first the National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) and four provincial assemblies would ask Musharraf, through separate resolutions, to take a fresh vote of confidence from them as committed by him before the Supreme Court.? The communiqué said that all the judges dismissed by Musharraf through an extra-constitutional step on Nov 3, 2007 would be restored in accordance with the March 9 Murree declaration after Musharraf's impeachment.? It also said that the 17th Constitutional Amendment passed by the previous parliament would be repealed. Shortly before the announcement, the Foreign Office said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would represent Pakistan at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics – rather than Musharraf as originally planned. Zardari said that Sharif's nominees in the federal cabinet, who had resigned a few months back protesting the non-restoration of the deposed judges in accordance with the Murree declaration, would come back in the cabinet. Sharif said that he would respond to Zardari's wish in a day or so.? The declaration said Musharraf has eroded the federation of Pakistan and undermined the democracy. Therefore, it has become imperative to remove him.? Answering a question about the support of the Pakistan Army and the United States to Musharraf, Sharif said that it looks like a joke to him. “It is our internal matter, and we don't need any no objection certificate from anybody.”? To a question about the possible use of his discretionary powers by Musharraf to dismiss the government, Zardari said if this were done, it would be the last step against the people of Pakistan and democracy.? Sharif said that it was not Nineties or Eighties when this power was freely used against democratic governments Nobody, he said, would accept the use of such authority.?Sharif did not answer the question regarding trial of Musharraf after his removal from the presidency.? Zardari said that the decision about the next president after Musharraf's removal would be taken in consultations among all the political parties.?He said that the judges' reinstatement would not be a problem after the disappearance of the “monitor” from the scene.? Musharraf has so far resisted calls to step down and insisted he will serve out his current five-year term after he was elected in a contentious parliamentary vote in October. He dominated Pakistan for eight years and became a close US ally after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but ceded control of the powerful army last year and has been largely sidelined since the coalition parties trounced his allies in February parliamentary elections. The ruling coalition has a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, or lower house, but Musharraf's supporters retain about half the seats in the Senate, or upper house. Policies pursued by Musharraf during his eight years in power “have brought Pakistan to a critical economical impasse,” said Zardari, the widowed husband of former premier Benazir Bhutto who took charge of her party Sharif, who was ousted as prime minister in Musharraf's 1999 coup and is the leader of the second-largest coalition party, said the process of impeachment would start “in the next few days.” __
