Pakistan PM’s motorcade attacked

Shots have been fired at the motorcade of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, although it is not clear if he was in the convoy at the time.

Two bullets from an unidentified gunman hit the PM’s car as he was traveling from Islamabad airport into the city, his press secretary told.

But security officials say the car was on its way to collect Mr Gilani.

Mr Gilani’s government is grappling with a growing threat from militants in the country.

It is not clear who fired the shots but Islamist militants based in Pakistan’s border regions have threatened to kill various government ministers, and have carried out deadly suicide bombings against army and government targets.

The incident represents a major lapse in security. In December former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed at an election rally in Rawalpindi.

Shattered glass

“I can confirm the prime minister’s convoy was fired upon while returning from [Islamabad] airport,” his press secretary Zahid Bashir told.

Two bullets struck the window of one of the front doors

“The prime minister was coming back from Lahore. The firing took place on the Islamabad highway. At this point, we believe the firing was from a small hill on the roadside.”

A statement issued by the prime minister’s office said: “Of the multiple sniper shots fired on the prime minister’s vehicle, two hit the window on the driver’s side.

“However, because of the robust and comprehensive security measures, the prime minister and all the members of his motorcade remained unharmed.”

Television pictures showed the shattered glass of the driver’s door.

Officials say another car in the convoy was also hit by several bullets. There are no reports of injuries.

However, there was confusion when the interior ministry gave a different account of the incident, saying that Mr Gilani was not in the car at the time of the attack.

The government information minister, Sherry Rehman, supported that account: “The convoy was going to receive the prime minister,” she told state TV. “Those who had designs, have failed.”

Mr Gilani had been in Lahore to canvass support for Asif Zardari, Ms Bhutto’s widower, ahead of presidential elections on Saturday.

Ms Bhutto had been favorite to win Pakistan’s general elections and become prime minister for a third time before she was killed on 27 December. The elections were subsequently postponed until February.

Her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) emerged as the winners and formed a coalition with the PML-N party of another former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Mr Gilani, himself a senior PPP member, became prime minister

The coalition broke up amid political acrimony late last month.

Confident

One of the biggest challenges facing Mr Gilani’s government comes from Islamist militants who control large areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Mr Gilani became prime minister after February’s elections

The army has been engaged in a major operation in recent weeks in the district of Bajaur which is estimated to have displaced up to 300,000 local people.

This week the government said the Bajaur operation would be suspended during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last year militants grew increasingly confident and carried out a series of attacks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the country’s main garrison town.

And last month a double suicide attack at a munitions factory in the town of Wah in Punjab province left nearly 70 people dead.

The loose alliance of militants that calls itself the Pakistan Taleban claimed responsibility for the Wah incident, the heaviest attack on a military installation by a militant group in the country’s history.

Mr Gilani’s PPP and Mr Sharif’s PML-N have spent much of their time since February arguing over issues such as the power of the presidency and the reinstatement of judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf.

During that time the economy has taken a further battering, with the Pakistani rupee falling to an all-time low, while food and fuel prices have risen sharply.

Musharraf ‘running out of time’

Analysts say Musharraf’s best way out would seem to be a dignified exit

Pakistan’s foreign minister has said President Pervez Musharraf must stand down in the next two days or face impeachment proceedings.

“Musharraf is running out of time”, said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – a major partner in the governing coalition.

Draft charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct, officials said.

Mr Musharraf’s office has said he will not resign and will defend himself.

The impeachment campaign was launched last week by leaders of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

A PML-N official said: “There is a long list of charges against him… we will file them, by the latest, by Tuesday.”

If Mr Musharraf chooses not to quit, he would be the first president in Pakistan’s history to be impeached.

Weighing up options

A spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, a pro-Musharraf party, said that the president’s advisers were considering his options.

STEPS TO IMPEACHMENT Impeachment proposers need 50% majority in Senate or National Assembly President given notice of impeachment, and has three days to respond Joint session of Senate and Assembly must be held between 7 and 14 days later to investigate charges If resolution presented, joint session must approve with two-thirds majority

Nawaz Sharif, who was toppled in the 1999 coup, said he was opposed to any deal which would give his old rival a “safe passage”.

He has said the president should be tried for treason, which carries the maximum sentence of the death penalty.

But the PPP, the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, says the decision of whether to put the president on trial should be left to parliament.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman, said the PPP “never indulges in the politics of revenge as it wants a stable Pakistan and a sustainable democracy in the country”.

Support for the president in a recent vote of confidence in the provincial assemblies has almost entirely collapsed.

Mr Musharraf’s best way out would now seem to be a dignified exit before parliament meets to debate the impeachment, our correspondent says.

Talks are going on behind the scenes.

The ruling coalition parties will have to decide where the former army chief, a key ally in Washington’s war on terror, is allowed to live and what protection he will receive, our correspondent says.

Mr Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

He gave up control of the army last year and his allies were defeated in February’s elections but he retains the power to dissolve parliament.

But his public standing suffered a huge setback in 2007 when he sacked Pakistan’s chief justice and nearly 60 judges to prevent them from overturning his re-election as president.

But analysts say the president is still thought to have heavy influence over the military and its reaction will remain crucial.

Musharraf faces impeachment bid

Courtesy BBC

President Musharraf has said he would rather resign than be impeached

Pakistan’s ruling coalition parties say they will begin impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf.

Party leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif made the announcement after three days of talks. They would need a two-thirds majority to impeach.

Mr Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

He gave up control of the army last year and his allies were defeated in February’s elections but he retains the power to dissolve parliament.

Mr Musharraf has previously said he would resign rather than face impeachment proceedings but he has made no comment yet on the latest move.

Sacked judges

Mr Zardari, of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and the PML-N’s Narwaz Sharif announced the impeachment move at a press conference in Islamabad.

Mr Zardari said: “We have good news for democracy. The coalition believes it is imperative to move for impeachment against General Musharraf.”

STEPS TO IMPEACHMENT Impeachment proposers need 50% majority in Senate or National Assembly President given notice of impeachment, and has three days to respond Joint session of Senate and Assembly must be held between 7 and 14 days later to investigate charges If resolution presented, joint session must approve with two-thirds majority OTHER POSSIBLE SCENARIO President dissolves parliament, placing country under emergency rule to prevent impeachment

Mr Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, derided Mr Musharraf’s economic policies, adding: “He has worked to undermine the transition to democracy.”

He also warned Mr Musharraf not to dissolve parliament, saying: “If he does it, it will be his last verdict against the people.”

Mr Sharif said: “Pakistan cannot afford to see democracy derailed, this is not the same Pakistan as was the case in the 1980s and 1990s. People will not accept it now.”

The leaders say they will also move to have Mr Musharraf face votes of confidence in the national and four provincial assemblies.

They also promised to restore judges sacked under Mr Musharraf’s emergency rule once impeachment was successful.

How to proceed on that issue had caused deep divisions between the two coalition parties since the elections.

New territory

Mr Musharraf had been scheduled to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing but has cancelled his trip and will be replaced by Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani.

Mr Musharraf was elected president for a five-year term last October in a controversial parliamentary vote.

One presidential source told Agence France-Presse news agency Mr Musharraf was discussing a course of action and had the options of dissolving parliament or imposing emergency rule again.

The BBC’s Mark Dummett in Islamabad says an impeachment would take Pakistani politics into new territory, since no Pakistani leader has faced it before.

The president is still thought to have heavy influence over the military and its reaction will remain crucial.

Pakistan has been ruled by military leaders for more than half of its existence since Partition in 1947.

Ruling parties in Musharraf talks

President Musharraf hopes to see out his term

Pakistan’s ruling alliance is expected to decide whether to  begin moves to try to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, following three days of talks.

Mr Musharraf has delayed his departure to China to attend the opening of the Olympics, after earlier suggestions he might cancel the trip entirely.

The president’s allies were defeated in elections in February, but he has so far resisted pressure to quit.

The governing coalition is divided over whether to impeach Mr Musharraf.

Latest reports from Islamabad quote “senior coalition sources” saying a deal has been reached in principle on impeaching the president, but these have not been confirmed.

Correspondents say it is also far from clear whether the ruling alliance could muster the required two-thirds majority needed in both houses of parliament.

‘Special relations’

The president was due to leave for the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Wednesday but at the last minute the trip was cancelled. No reason was given.

A statement from the foreign ministry later said that he would leave for China on Thursday.

Work is under way to finalise the draft of a joint statement PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar Q&A: Pakistan’s judges

“In view of our special relations with China, the president has decided to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics,” said the foreign ministry statement on Wednesday.

China is one of Pakistan’s closest allies, and it would have been highly unusual for a Pakistani leader to call off a visit at such short notice.

The question of whether or not to impeach Mr Musharraf has threatened to divide the governing coalition.

Early in what was a dramatic day on Wednesday, the threat of a new opposition onslaught appeared sufficient to force him to cancel his Beijing trip. Yet by evening a spokesman said he would travel as planned.

That Mr Musharraf felt confident enough to fly to China would suggest to many Pakistanis that for now at least he feels more secure in his position, our correspondent says.

The president has previously said he would prefer to resign than face impeachment.

Last year, he gave up control of the army, the country’s most powerful institution, but he retains the power to dissolve parliament.

How the military reacts to any efforts to oust him would be crucial in determining his fate.

Opponents’ moves

The governing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its alliance partners appeared deadlocked by Wednesday evening over the impeachment moves.

Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif met on Wednesday

At one point, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stormed out following the announcement that Mr Musharraf had issued orders to reinstate some of Pakistan’s top judges.

Mr Sharif argues that the president is attempting to divide the governing coalition.

But progress appears to have been made since then.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told the news agency AFP work was under way “to finalise the draft of a joint statement” by Thursday evening.

A spokesman for Mr Sharif’s party also said an announcement was due.

Mr Musharraf’s political allies were defeated in February elections, from which the PPP emerged as the largest party.

In second place was the PML-N of Mr Sharif, whom President Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup.

The two parties formed an alliance in March, but have since been split over the issues of presidential impeachment and the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Musharraf during a state of emergency in November.

The PML-N pulled out of the federal cabinet in May when PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari refused to move immediately on these issues.

The rift has caused a sense of paralysis in the government, which is under pressure to tackle militancy and a worsening economy.