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ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday called for political reconciliation in Pakistan, in an apparent appeal to opponents who are gearing up to impeach the key US anti-terror ally.
Making his first public comments since the ruling coalition announced impeachment plans last week, Musharraf told a function on the eve of Pakistan's 61st Independence Day that there was a "conspiracy" to weaken the country.
"It's my appeal that we should adopt a reconciliatory approach so that stability should return," Musharraf told an audience of allies at the presidency in Islamabad in a speech that was televised live.
"Because if there is stability we can fight terrorism, if we have a strong economy we can fight terrorism, and we should all put aside our differences and work to make Pakistan strong," he said.
His appeal came hours after legislators in southern Sindh province became the third of Pakistan's four provincial assemblies to approve a motion calling on Musharraf to face a vote of confidence or else be impeached.
Coalition leaders Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999, said last Thursday that they would seek the president's impeachment.
The provincial votes are meant to ratchet up the pressure on Musharraf to quit before he is pushed out of power, although a presidential spokesman has repeatedly denied that he will resign.
Musharraf did not refer directly to the impeachment issue but he said that Pakistan, beset by Islamic militancy and economic meltdown, was "passing through a very critical moment in its history".
"In my view, someone is conspiring against our institutions either internally or externally," said Musharraf, wearing an open necked shirt and blazer.
"But I assure you that the nation will stand together like it did in 1947 and it will prove that Pakistan will remain intact despite the predictions of its enemies," he added.
The coalition says it is still finalising a charge sheet against Musharraf and expects to introduce the impeachment motion in the national parliament next week.
It needs a two-thirds majority in a combined sitting of the upper and lower houses to topple Musharraf, who could be the first president to be impeached in Pakistan's history. --AFP
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