With Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif sharpening his rhetoric against Pervez Musharraf, the ruling Pakistan People's Party said that it was waiting for an opportune moment to offer an exit to the embattled President.
"Pakistan People's Party will be the one that sends President Pervez Musharraf home," its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday night.
The PPP wants to "provide an exit to President Musharraf and was waiting for an opportune occasion," he said.
Zardari's comments came in the wake of a demand by his ally Sharif for Musharraf to be made accountable for his actions over the past eight-and-a-half years.
Addressing the 'long march' by the lawyers to press for the reinstatement of judges deposed by Musharraf, Sharif had also said on Saturday that the President could not be provided a 'safe exit'.
Referring to the 'long march', Zardari said that in the past marches of even 1,000 people were not tolerated, while the PPP-led government had allowed the march of 30,000 people.
In the past, no one was allowed to enter Islamabad to even stage a protest rally, "while the new government had adopted a democratic stance and facilitated the marchers," he said.
PML-N lawmaker Hanif Abbasi said on Sunday that 48 Members of Parliament of his party had signed a motion to impeach Musharraf. Abbasi said the motion would be introduced in parliament soon but it was not clear whether the move had the backing of the top leadership of the PPP and PML-N.
The ruling coalition has a majority in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament while the opposition PML-Q has a slender majority in the Senate or upper house. A two-thirds majority in both houses is needed to pass an impeachment motion.
