LAHORE: Beleaguered Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may quit the presidency in the next few days after being warned by his top legal aides who believe that the ruling coalition might detain him and try him on treason charges under Article 6 of the Constitution if he decides to confront them instead of leaving the presidency peacefully without putting up a fight.
Well placed circles close to the presidency say Musharraf’s chief legal advisor Sharifuddin Pirzada and the attorney general of Pakistan Malik Qayyum have told Musharraf in plain words that under the present circumstances, he could neither dissolve the National Assembly nor move a reference before the Supreme Court to block the impeachment proceedings, and that the only available option for him was to quit honourably or face impeachment.
The sources said both Pirzada and Qayyum met the president in Rawalpindi recently and told him that the best option was to quit because he lacks the required parliamentary strength to survive the impeachment motion, which is being tabled in the National Assembly on August 11.
The president actually wanted to know if he could stop the impeachment process through the judiciary’s intervention which consists of his hand picked judges.
However, he was told by his legal eagles that no court could intervene in the impeachment process of parliament or any business under consideration of the National Assembly or the Senate.
Musharraf was informed that according to a reported Supreme Court case decided in the mid ‘90s, the apex court had ruled that the president could not file a reference before the Supreme Court without the consent of the prime minister. The first commando president of Pakistan was thus advised to resign even by those who saw unprecedented heights when the sun was shining.
