Charges drawn up against Pakistan's Musharraf

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's ruling coalition has prepared impeachment charges against President Pervez Musharraf focusing on violation of the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said on Saturday.

Speculation has been mounting that former army chief and firm U.S. ally Musharraf would quit after the coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said last week it planned to impeach him.

The president's spokesman has insisted Musharraf would not resign but would face the accusations. He dismissed as malicious reports of the president's imminent resignation and said they were damaging the economy.

But negotiations on an exit for the president have been going on, officials have said, while media have reported important ally Saudi Arabia has been trying to help mediate a solution.

A coalition team has finished drafting impeachment charges and handed them to the minister of law for scrutiny, said Ahsan Iqbal, a member of the drafting team.

"There is a long list of charges against him ... we will file them, by the latest, by Tuesday," Iqbal told Reuters.

Iqbal is a senior official of the second biggest coalition party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The long-running crisis surrounding Musharraf's future has heightened concern in the United States and other allies about the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim state, which is in the front line of the campaign against Islamist militancy.

Political uncertainty has also sapped investor confidence. The rupee weakening on Saturday to another record low against the dollar, at about 76.60/65, the fifth straight session of record lows.

Pakistani stocks, which surged under Musharraf's rule until this year, have been hovering near two-year lows but rose 3.6 percent on Friday as investors cheered rumors of his departure, a move they viewed as a milestone that would ease political tension.

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Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup. His popularity began to evaporate last year when he clashed with the judiciary and imposed a six-week stint of emergency rule to thwart opposition to his efforts to secure another term.

Iqbal said Musharraf's November 3 imposition of emergency rule was a main charge on the list.

Coalition officials have hoped Musharraf would resign rather than face impeachment, and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a senior official of Bhutto's party, said on Saturday time was running out for the president to take a decision before the impeachment process was set in motion.

"I think he will have to take this decision today or tomorrow ... if he resigns then there will be no need for the impeachment process," Qureshi told reporters in Multan, his hometown.