‘Musharraf will remain President for 5 years’

Musharraf's optimism about continuing in office came amid an assertion by a top US intelligence official that he faced the threat of being impeached although the two major coalition partners do not have the required numbers in Parliament.

Stating that PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif had ‘an agenda to impeach President Musharraf’, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnel said the PPP and PML(N) ‘do not have the votes to do that (impeach), but if they had independents join them, they could possibly have the votes’.

During his meeting with a delegation of leaders of the PML-Q, the party which backs him and was routed in the February 18 polls, Musharraf said he would continue to play his constitutional role as President, according to PML-Q sources. The delegation was led by former premier Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Pervez Elahi, a close confidante of Musharraf, said, He (Musharraf) has been elected President for five years. He will remain President for five years."

"There is no such proposal. Neither is he considering it," Elahi said when asked whether Musharraf is considering resigning.

The meeting between Musharraf and PML-Q delegation also took the view that the removal of the President's powers to dismiss an elected Prime Minister and dissolve Parliament ‘would not be accepted’, the sources said.

The sources quoted Musharraf as saying that revocation of these powers would cause ‘problems for the new Parliament’.

The PML-N and PPP have indicated that they plan to strip the President of these powers.

PML-Q spokesman Tariq Azim meanwhile said he challenged Bhutto's and Sharif's parties to try to amend the constitution to take away Musharraf's power.

"If they do get two-thirds majority it is up to them to bring in any amendment, but they don't have the majority yet," he said, adding ‘There are many ifs and buts’.

The ruling coalition needs a two-third majority in a House of 272 to successfully carry out any impeachment. The PPP(88) and PML-N(66) together have 154 seats. The Awami National Party(ANP) which has 10 members and an unspecified number of independents have also extended support.

Meanwhile, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the PPP leader who is the front-runner to become Pakistan's Prime Minister, may not bag the post as some sections of the party are lobbying for the slot to be given to a leader from Punjab.

There has been a ‘change in thinking’ within the PPP in the last two days and three other names are now doing the rounds in the party -- Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Yousuf Raza Gillani and Ahmed Mukhtar, who defeated PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain with a huge margin in Gujrat, The News reported on Thursday.

Mukhtar said that during the past two days, there was some ‘change in thinking within the party ranks’ regarding the province from which the PPP should nominate its Prime Minister. PPP sources had earlier said the post would go to Sindh, the impoverished southern province to which Fahim and slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto belong.