Islamabad, August 6
In a day of flip-flops, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today decided to go ahead with his visit to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games, hours after abruptly cancelling his scheduled departure to Beijing amid political efforts to impeach him.
The foreign office initially announced that Musharraf had cancelled his scheduled visit this morning due to “developments at home”.
Later in the day, its spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said the President had decided to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics “in view of our special relations with China”. “The President will now leave for China tomorrow,” Sadiq said.
Sources earlier said Musharraf had deferred his visit after top leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition agreed in principle to impeach him.
Musharraf met his close constitutional and legal advisers at his camp office in Rawalpindi to discuss a strategy to counter any move to impeach him.
Opposition PML-Q leaders, who met Musharraf, quoted him as saying that he would continue to play his constitutional role. The President would also use his constitutional powers to counter any move to impeach him, the leaders said.
The sources said the decision to explore ways to impeach Musharraf was taken during a meeting yesterday between PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. Both parties held further discussions on the issue today but were tight-lipped about the parleys and did not issue any statement so far.
Leaders of both parties merely said they had reached consensus on key issues and a final decision would be taken after consulting other allies of the coalition, including the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Awami National Party and parliamentarians from the tribal areas.
During his visit to China, Musharraf is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and National People’s Council chairman Wu Bungguo. He is also expected to meet leaders of Russia, Australia, France and Italy on the sidelines of the Olympics.
— PTI
