Musharraf spokesman denies resignation reports

Several newspapers quoted aides, politicians and diplomats as saying that Musharraf was about to step down following the coalition governments announcement last week that it would try to unseat him.

"I don’t know where they get such baseless information," retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, Musharraf’s chief spokesman, told AFP.

"It becomes very unimportant for me to comment on these reports. I have been hearing all this for the past many months."

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, both based in the United States, and the London-based Financial Times all said Musharraf would resign nearly nine years after he grabbed power in a military coup.

"Musharraf will neither face impeachment nor be prosecuted.... We expect a major development in the next 48 hours," the Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified source as saying.

Musharraf issued a plea on Thursday, Pakistan’s Independence Day, for reconciliation but it was snubbed by the coalition, led by the parties of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Coalition leaders have said they are finalizing impeachment charges against Musharraf and are likely to lodge them in the lower house of parliament on Monday.

The speaker of parliament then has three days to forward the charges to Musharraf, after which Musharraf would then have up to two weeks to respond.

A two-thirds majority is required in the upper and lower houses of parliament to impeach him. The coalition itself is short of that number but has won pledges of support from independents and at least one former Musharraf ally.

But presidential sources have repeatedly told AFP in recent days that Musharraf "will not play the numbers game" -- a reference to fighting out a potentially humiliating impeachment move in parliament.

Pakistan’s powerful army, the helm of which Musharraf relinquished in November and the only institution which could back a move by him to dissolve parliament or declare an emergency, has kept silent on the issue.

Photo: AP