Islamabad: Embattled Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Monday faced fresh pressure from home and abroad to step down with PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif saying the sooner he quits it will be better while an influential US Senator adviced him to seek a "graceful exit".
“Musharraf is an unconstitutional and unlawful president. The same judiciary, he had suspended as chief of army staff should be restored and they should decide his on his eligibility to continue in office,” says Sharif.
Musharraf however rejected the calls after his political allies were routed in the parliamentary elections with his spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi saying the president had been elected for a five-year period last year and his position should not be determined by poll results.
"The president has been elected for a period of five years by the assemblies of Pakistan, which have been elected by the Pakistani people and not by senators from the US," Qureshi said.
"So I don't think he needs to respond to anything that is said by these people in their capacity", Qureshi said, adding "Except for Nawaz Sharif it is clear that no one else is talking about the president leaving."
After meeting hardline Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed here, Sharif told reporters "Musharraf should quit as soon as possible. It would be better for him because the people have given their mandate."
Though the US has publicly indicated that it wants Musharraf to continue, influential US Senator Joe Biden said Musharraf must make a graceful retreat from power.
"I firmly believe if they do not focus on old grudges - and there's plenty in Pakistan - and give him a graceful way to move" then Musharraf will leave office," Biden, who is the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told an American televison channel.
Sharif wanted the country's depsoed judiciary to rule on the legality of Musharraf's position before any parliament move to impeach him.
"Before parliament impeaches him we want this issue resolved by the judiciary... it should not reach that stage," Sharif said.
Musharraf sacked chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and dozens of other judges on November 3, days before the Supreme Court was due to rule on his re-election.
Sharif, whose PML-N last week announced it would form a coalition with PPP, said the newly elected parliamentarians of the victorious parties would meet here on Wednesday to demand the immediate transfer of power by Musharraf, who has said he is ready to work with the new
government.
"We are meeting so that Musharraf can realise the real situation," he said. Also endorsing a negotiated exit for Musharraf was Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who advised the incoming government not to be "heavy-handed or ham-handed".
Musharraf, who has been on a backfoot following the defeat of the parties backed by him in Feb 18 polls, on Sunday denied reports that he was planning an "exit strategy".
Meanwhile, behind the scene negotiations over government formation continued with the PML(N) apparently linking its cooperation with the PPP to lifting of a ban on prime ministers seeking a third prime ministerial term.
Musharraf had passed a law in 2002 to bar Sharif and PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, both two-time prime ministers, from occupying the top post again.
Before cooperating with the PPP, the PML-N will seek a guarantee that after coming to power, the PPP-led government will withdraw the amendment to the constitution that bars a third prime ministerial term, sources told the Daily Times.
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