NWFP legislature also passes censure motion against Musharraf

Islamabad: President Pervez Musharraf received another rap on the knuckles on Tuesday as a second provincial assembly overwhelmingly backed the ruling coalition's move to impeach him.

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) legislature passed a resolution - with 107 votes in favour and only four against - urging Musharraf to seek a confidence vote from the electoral college or resign immediately, a day after the Punjab assembly had dealt him a similar blow.

The resolution authorised the ruling coalition to press ahead with impeachment proceedings at a joint sitting of the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-member Senate if Musharraf failed to get a confidence vote.

During the voting in the provincial legislature, former federal interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao abandoned his position in support of Musharraf as provincial lawmakers belonging to his political faction voted against the former army chief.

"We have done so to strengthen democracy in the country," Sherpao's son and NWFP assembly member Sikander told reporters.

Several lawmakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) in Punjab had also ditched the ruler they stood by during his eight years at the helm with absolute powers until the fateful February 2008 polls.

The provincial assemblies of Sindh and Balochistan provinces were poised to adopt identical censure resolutions this week.

Senior leaders from the PML-N of ex-premier Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party spent another day trying to draw up a draft charge-sheet that would be annexed to an impeachment notice likely to be submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly next week.

Coalition figures continued to urge the head of state to resign to spare the country further instability.

Courts asked to keep off

Pakistan Peoples Party leader in the Senate, Raza Rabbani, who is also a member of the coalition drafting committee, warned that the judiciary had no constitutional authority to intervene in parliamentary work.

"Impeachment proceedings are a right of the parliament. It cannot be challenged in any court and any such interference would be an infringement upon the sovereignty of the parliament and the constitution," he told the media.

The warning came amid speculation the president could take the matter himself or through a surrogate to the Supreme Court, restructured by him under emergency rule in November 2007.

Musharraf has so far not made any public statement on how he intends to face the challenge. PML-Q leaders have met him regularly and told media the president would fight and the party would stand by him.

"There is a tidal wave in favour of democracy," an exuberant Information Minister Sherry Rehman, also a drafting committee member, said in a statement, referring to the vote in Punjab and NWFP.

She said the government would strictly follow the constitutional path.