[JURIST] Officials from Pakistani co-ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] will soon present an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf, a PML-N MP told a National Assembly [official website] meeting Sunday. PML-N and coalition partner Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] officials have disagreed [JURIST report] on how to limit or amend Musharraf's powers, with the PML-N generally favoring resignation or impeachment and the PPP favoring working with Musharraf to improve the country's political system. However, after Musharraf declared [Dawn report] that he would neither step down nor go into exile, PPP leaders took a tougher stance, stating that Musharraf was only president by default and warning that if he did not step down, the parliament would impeach him [The News report]. So far 48 parliament officials have signed the motion for impeachment, which could be tabled within the next two weeks. Zee News has more.

Last Sunday, party leaders released a 10-point charge sheet [JURIST report; Dawn backgrounder] detailing Musharraf's alleged misuse of his executive powers, including November's declaration of emergency rule [text, PDF] and the subsequent removal of judges from the Supreme Court of Pakistan [court website]. PML-N officials recently supported a protest march by members of the Pakistani lawyers' movement [NYT backgrounder], which reached the Parliament House in the capital Islamabad on Friday night and which will likely continue until the judges are reinstated [JURIST reports]. Last week PML-N leader and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [JURIST news archive] called for Musharraf to be tried for treason [JURIST report], labeling him a traitor disloyal to Pakistan. Sharif also said that Musharraf should be punished for the "damage" he has done to Pakistan in the years since he led a military coup [BBC backgrounder] and unseated Sharif in 1999.