The nation’s two largest parties ended five months of infighting and said they are united and have enough votes to oust Musharraf. An impeachment, unprecedented in Pakistan’s 61- year history, would remove a central figure in President George W. Bush’s “global war on terror.”

“God willing, we will have the numbers,” said Asif Ali Zardari, head of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the coalition’s leader, in remarks to reporters. He added that the coalition parties “have the courage and we have the political will.”

Musharraf’s spokesman was unavailable for comment after the announcement by Zardari, the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and his coalition partner, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at an Islamabad press conference. Musharraf toppled Sharif’s government in 1999. Dawn News television reported that Musharraf was meeting with constitutional experts and his aides.

Zardari had been at odds with Sharif over how to oppose Musharraf after the PPP and a Pakistan Muslim League faction run by Sharif won a national election in February.

The rift has stalled the government’s efforts to combat terrorism, especially along the border with Afghanistan, and improve living standards for the nation’s 163 million people as food prices surge.

`Real Problems’

“I think these steps will lead the government toward the freedom of catering to the real problems of the masses,” said Ishtiaq Ahmed, associate professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

Musharraf “is in the dock, now,” said Lahore-based political analyst Rashed Rahman. “He’ll find it very difficult to remain in office.”

Zardari said the parties will issue detailed charges against Musharraf in the coming days. They have accused him of violating the constitution with his coup and with a state of emergency he declared in November.

While Musharraf might dissolve parliament under powers he took during his army-backed rule, “politically it has become very difficult if not impossible,” said Rahman, former editor of the Post, a nationwide daily. He said that step would ignite political turmoil in Pakistan that would keep Musharraf’s allies of the past — the army and the U.S. government — from continuing to support him.

Impeachment Vote

The coalition parties say they have more than the two- thirds majority — 295 votes out of 442 in a joint sitting of parliament — that is constitutionally required to remove a president. The coalition holds 294 seats, and with independent legislators can muster 303 votes to oust Musharraf, said Ahsan Iqbal, the spokesman for Sharif’s party.

Sharif withdrew his party’s Cabinet ministers from the coalition in May over the Peoples Party’s delay in agreeing to an impeachment plan. Zardari asked Sharif, whose ministers quit the Cabinet in May after failing to agree on impeaching Musharraf, to rejoin and the former prime minister said he would make a decision tomorrow.

Governments headed by Sharif and Bhutto, which alternated power twice between 1988 and 1999, were dissolved four times without completing their terms amid accusations of mismanagement and corruption.

Pressure to Quit

A 64-year-old former general, Musharraf has been under pressure to quit since he fired 60 judges, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry last year, before the court could rule on the legality of his re-election as president.

Musharraf won election from an outgoing legislature that he controlled, and pledged to seek a vote of confidence from the parliament elected in February. Zardari criticized his failure to do so, citing it as a basis for impeaching him.

“Musharraf is an illegal and unconstitutional president,” Sharif said. “How can such a man remain president?”

Since January, the government has faced criticism for a slowdown in economic growth, a widening budget deficit and an inability to rein in inflation running at a 30-year high. Musharraf was previously credited with steering Pakistan’s economy out of trouble in 1999 when the government had less than $1 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Those reserves rose to $14 billion in mid-2007, then fell to $9 billion in June.

“Musharraf’s policies have brought Pakistan to a critical economic impasse,” Zardari said.

Investors Rebel

Investors have also turned against the government. The rupee had its worst month since September 2000 in July in part because of surging crude oil prices. A plunge in the benchmark stock index to a two-year low triggered violent protests outside the Karachi Stock Exchange and forced authorities to place limits on trading and form a state-backed fund to buy stocks.

Pakistanis should set aside attacks on Musharraf and the country should focus instead on problems of militancy and poverty, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said July 2 during a trip to Pakistan.

Bush made Musharraf an ally in battling the al-Qaeda terror network in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Pakistan’s government, led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who visited Bush in Washington last week, says it is trying to combat extremism by using a combination of negotiation, economic and political development and the selective use of military force.

source: Bloomberg