The leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Wednesday met President Pervez Musharraf and assured their full support if the coalition government moved to impeach him, asking him to play his Constitutional role and defend his position at all cost.
PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PML-Q senior leader Hamid Nasir Chatta met the President at the Presidential camp office Rawalpindi and discussed the current political situation assuring him their complete support if the ruling coalition government moved to impeach him.
Later, Governor Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad also met the President and assured the party's support in case the coalition government moved impeachment motion in a joint sitting of the Parliament.
The two traditional supporters of President Musharraf once again came to the rescue of the President despite the fact that these parties at present do not enjoy a significant majority in the Parliament. Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf reportedly vowed not to allow any such step of the coalition government, which pushes him to the wall.
He was quoted as saying that it was the right of the government to move the impeachment motion against him but it is his right to defend it. It was also learnt that the veteran politician Hamid Nasir Chatta advised the President to come to the Parliament and defend the allegations being levelled against him.
Later, addressing a press conference, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi reiterated that his party would support the President as he was elected for five years and he would remain as president till the completion of the Constitutional tenure. He opined that the impeachment drama is nothing more than a diversion of the attention of the people from the core issues.
He questioned what the present government has done for the people as the rulers are enjoying foreign trips in the name of dialogue. Chaudhry said that the present political system is the outcome of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as the elections and subsequently the oath taken from the same President was right what happens now? He alleged that the state institutions confronting each other due to the wrong policies of coalition parties.
"What they have done for the supremacy of the Parliament is that it has become a rubber stamp and all the decisions are being taken by un-elected people outside the Parliament," he alleged. He was of the opinion that PML-N would never quit the coalition government and said it would work on 'the same package' as the Punjab government is much dearer to the Sharif brothers.