PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — The former interior minister under President Pervez Musharraf will back moves to impeach him, a party official said Tuesday, in a further blow to the beleaguered US-backed Pakistani leader.
Aftab Sherpao, a staunch ally of Musharraf who headed the interior ministry until 2007, changed his mind after speaking to ruling coalition leader Asif Ali Zardari, Sherpao's son Sikander told reporters.
"We have decided to support the impeachment motion in the interest of the democracy," Sikander Sherpao, a member of the North West Frontier Province assembly and a key leader of Sherpao's small political party.
Sherpao was a member of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party until 2002 before creating his own faction and supporting Musharraf in the previous parliament.
Musharraf's allies, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, lost heavily in general elections in February. The PPP won the most seats in those polls and formed a coalition government.
Zardari, Bhutto's widower, announced on Thursday that the coalition plans to impeach Musharraf, but it is still struggling to get the two-thirds majority necessary to unseat the president.
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