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Islamabad: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership had agreed in principle to force President Pervez Musharraf from power.
Addressing a gathering in Lahore on the tenth anniversary of the 1998 nuclear tests under his government, Sharif said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari "agreed with me to remove the retired general from the presidency".
Sharif, chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PPP's partner in the ruling coalition, targeted Musharraf in his emotional address.
His disclosure follows his talks with Zardari in Islamabad on Tuesday on a proposed constitutional amendments package.
The PML-N has consistently demanded Musharraf's impeachemnt by parliament, but the PPP has insisted it would prefer dialogue to confrontationist positions on all issues.
Sharif said a "dictator" continued to occupy the presidency despite the clear verdict given by the people against him and his policies in the general elections in February.
Sharif recalled his overthrow, imprisonment and banishment by the "commando general" after he seized power in 1999 but said he was ready to forget the excesses committed against him and his family.
"We are forgiving all this, but we cannot forgive crimes against the nation," he said.
Calling Musharraf a "traitor", he called for apt punishment to be handed out to the former general.
Sharif referred to the surge in terrorism after Musharraf "bowed down" to foreign pressure, plunging the country into a cycle of violence including suicide attacks. He recalled the military operation on the Lal (red) Mosque in Islamabad in July 2007, in which he said "innocent children" were killed.
He also referred to the scores of superior judiciary judges sacked under the pretext of emergency rule in November last year and called for the honourable restoration.
PML-N workers and supporters held rallies in different cities in the country, paying tributes to discredited nuclear hero Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and demanding an end to his long house detention.
A crowd gathered near the heavily guarded house of the scientist in the capital and chanted slogans for his release. The protesters dispersed after security personnel did not allow a delegation from among them to meet the scientist.
Speakers at the rallies highlighted the courageous decision by Sharif in his capacity as prime minister in 1998 to proceed with the nuclear tests despite enormous international pressure not to react to India's nuclear detonations.
A habeas corpus petition filed by an advocate over the detention of Khan is pending in the Islamabad High Court, which yesterday postponed a scheduled hearing after one of the judges reported sick.
A petition seeking vacation of the Army House in Rawalpindi by President Pervez Musharraf has been filed at the Islamabad-based Supreme Court's registry in Lahore, the state-run television reported yesterday.
The petition has been filed by a member of a civil society group called the Adlia Bachao (save the judiciary) Committee.
Musharraf moved into the Army House in the garrison city near Islamabad after he was appointed army chief during the second government of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He toppled Sharif in a coup and seized power in October 1999.
Later the general became president, replacing civilian head of state Rafiq Tarar but has continued to live in the Army House and mostly function from his camp office there, instead of shifting to the palatial President House in Islamabad.
Sharif's PML-N, a major partner of the Pakistan Peoples Party in the present ruling coalition, has been demanding vacation of the Army House by Musharraf after he quit the top miltiary post and General Ashfaq Kiyani took over as army chief in November last year.
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