Go Musharraf, Say Pakistani Media

Pakistani media urged embattled Musharraf to resign to spare the country more political troubles. (Reuters)

"For the sake of all of us, please maintain your dignity and go quietly," wrote the English-language daily the News, reported Reuters.

"He can save the country a lot of trouble by resigning voluntarily," added the Nation, a Lahore-based newspaper. 

Pakistan's ruling coalition decided on Thursday, to begin impeachment proceedings against Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

A session of the National Assembly has been called for Monday, Aug. 11, to start the impeachment process.

But the embattled president vowed to fight the impeachment bid, his aides said.

"He is considering the options that are available," a presidential aide told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.

Musharraf was set to meet his top legal and political advisers to discuss his dwindling options

The embattled president has powers to dissolve the parliament.

"He will respond to the government's allegations and defend himself," said the aide.

Key Musharraf ally Mushahid Hussain said his party would back the president.

"We will prepare a case, the president should be there (in parliament) and defend himself, and at least say 'I am not a crook,'" said Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.

Under the constitution, a  two-thirds combined majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament is required for impeaching a sitting president.

No president has ever been impeached in the history of the Asian Muslim heavyweight.

Doubts

Pakistani media, however, cast doubts that US-backed Musharraf would step down voluntarily to spare his country more troubles.

"President Pervez Musharraf is not among those people who will resign for the sake of the country or to protect his honor," said Nawa-i-Waqt, a leading Urdu language daily.

"Had he wished to do that, he could have resigned immediately after the February 18 elections," it wrote, referring to polls that stripped Musharraf of parliamentary support and was widely interpreted as a referendum on his rule.

Musharraf, a former commando, ruled nuclear-armed Pakistan relatively untroubled for eight years with the backing of the United States.

But his popularity slumped after he ousted the country's chief justice and imposed a state of emergency in November 2007 to prevent any challenges to his re-election as president.

"Unless something out of the ordinary happens, President Pervez Musharraf's political fate has been sealed," the Dawn newspaper said.