Former Pakistani prime minister, Nawwaz Sharif, called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a traitor and claims the ruling coalition has agreed to oust him.
Sharif leads the Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz Party, the second largest party in the coalition, formed after Musharraf’s supporters were defeated in elections in February.
Asif Ali Zardari, whose party heads the coalition, has agreed to remove Musharraf from his post, Sharif said in a speech on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) insisted the priority was to curtail Musharraf’s powers rather than to take a confrontational course and impeach him, according to AP.
The more conciliatory approach would include approving a package of constitutional amendments to strip Musharraf of his power to dissolve the parliament and appoint senior officials.
However, the PPP is not entirely ruling out Musharraf’s impeachment.
A spokesman for Musharraf said the president, who is an ally of the United States in the war on terror, is not resigning.
Sharif’s government was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup and the two have remained rivals.
“He should be given the punishment of a traitor,” Sharif said in his address in Lahore.
Sharif said Musharraf had not fulfilled his promise to quit the presidency if people did not vote for his party.
Musharraf’s imposition of a six-week emergency rule last November, declaredly aimed to defeat terrorism and extremism, generated criticism that he was trying to stifle his opponents.
Sharif is at odds with Zardari’s party over how to approach Musharraf and over the restoration of judges who were sacked by the president under the emergency rule.
Sharif pulled his ministers out of the government to protest a delay in reaching an agreement over the restoration of judges but his party remains in the coalition.