Islamabad: Pakistan People s Party-Sherpao, the breakaway faction of the ruling PPP, which had supported President Pervez Musharraf over the past five years, today said that it would go with the ruling coalition s proposed impeachment motion against him.
"PML-N s Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Pakistan People s Party s Khurshid Shah requested us to support the ruling coalition regarding the impeachment," PPP-Sherpao parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao told reporters.
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari phoned the party chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao to seek his support for resolution, Sikander said, adding that his party believed in democracy.
Sikander said his party s central executive committee held a meeting and decided to support the country s democratic forces so that problems faced by the people could be resolved.
PPP-Sherpao chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had served as interior minister in the previous PML-Q-led federal government. The PML-Q had recently been in touch with the PPP-Sherpao to ask it to oppose the impeachment move.
The move by the PPP-Sherpao comes close on the heels of decisions by dissident PML-Q parliamentarians and provincial legislators to back the move to impeach Musharraf. At least 30 PML-Q legislators yesterday backed a resolution passed by the Punjab assembly asking the President to seek a vote of confidence in parliament.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed today said Musharraf should not only be impeached but also tried for his unconstitutional actions, including the sacking of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and launching of military operation in the northwestern tribal areas.
He also said the judges deposed by Musharraf during last year s emergency rule should have been restored before the impeachment move.
