LAHORE, March 18: Despite reiterations of its stand to support President Pervez Musharraf under all circumstances, the PML-Q now thinks that the president may have to step down if the new coalition government succeeds in fulfilling its promise to reinstate the deposed judges.

“In case the sacked judges are restored, President Musharraf will be left with no option but to resign,” said a senior party leader privy to behind-the-scene developments and the nature of contacts between the PPP and the president.

According to him, the president already stood sidelined and was not in a position to use his constitutional powers in the changed situation because of the numerical strength in the National Assembly of the PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI-F which have agreed to form a coalition at the centre. He said the president’s survival in office was linked to the fate of the deposed judges.

“In case the judges are back, the president will have to pack up”.

This is the first time that people in the PML-Q have

started saying that the man who had cobbled together their party ahead of the 2002 elections and then kept it in power for five years, cornering the PPP and the PML-N, did not appear to have a smooth political future.

According to this leader, in their back channel talks the PPP had assured President Musharraf that it would not support any move to impeach him or restore the sacked judges. But, he said, it now appeared that the PML-N had created a situation in which the PPP leadership was not in a position to adhere to the assurances it had given to the president.

PPP and the PML-N sources say that the two parties would continue to mount pressure on the president to quit, but it is less likely that they will go for impeaching him despite having the required numerical strength.

“In the prevailing situation the president will face an impeachment-like situation every day because of the ruling coalition’s strength. But we’ll not have to annoy the main backer of President Musharraf, the United States, by trying to oust him,” said PML-N sources, hoping that the former army chief would not be able to face the pressure for long and would ultimately give up.

A PML-Q leader, who did not want to be named, alleged that President Musharraf had changed his attitude towards his party at the time of polls in an attempt to have good ties with the PPP he thought would be his new ally. The leadership had experienced the change a few days after the polls.

The PML-Q president called former minister Ishaq Khakwani, who was defeated by PML-N’s Tehmina Daultana by about over a 1,000 votes, to Islamabad for an important meeting. Another former federal minister, who was defeated on two seats, was also there.

The former ruling party chief told the two former ministers to approach a senior official of the Election Commission with a vote recount plea, assuring them that they would get relief as the official had received necessary instructions from the presidency.

They ‘reported’ to the said official but were surprised to find that contrary to their expectations the official’s attitude was quite different. However, they submitted their pleas and started waiting for the outcome.

When no action was taken in the next few days, they approached the party leadership for further instructions. The PML-Q chief reportedly told them that he had been trying to talk to the president for a few days but his call was not getting through.

This led the PML-Q leadership to believe that the president had changed his political partners.

However, the PML-Q leaders are happy that the president who had tried to outsmart them had himself been outmaneuvered by the parties he had been cursing in the past.