ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) has decided to rejoin the federal cabinet as part of a deal with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), as the ruling coalition formulated a plan for impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf, which will be launched next week and is likely to be completed by the end of the month.

A PML-N spokesman said party chief Nawaz Sharif had accepted the request of PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari to rejoin the cabinet and in the first phase four of its nine ministers who had resigned would resume their functions on Saturday.

The ministers who will rejoin the cabinet are: Ahsan Iqbal (education), Rana Tanveer Ahmed (defence production), Khawaja Saad Rafiq (culture and youth affairs) and Sardar Mahtab Abbasi (railways).

The PML-N ministers had resigned on May 12 after the expiry of the second deadline set by the coalition leadership for reinstatement of the deposed judges.

PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters outside the Parliament House that the remaining ministers would return to the cabinet only after reinstatement of all the judges.

PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn that Mr Zardari had taken the chief of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Mehmood Khan Achakzai, into confidence on the impeachment plan. According to him, Mr Achakzai responded in a positive manner. The spokesman said Mr Zardari would also inform Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf leader Imran Khan about the move.

The coalition parties formed a ‘task committee’ to review progress.

The committee headed by Mr Zardari finalised on Friday the plan for completing the impeachment process. It comprises Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Ishaq Dar and MNA Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan from the PML-N and Senator Raza Rabbani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman, Farooq Naek, Khursheed Shah and Farhatullah Babar from the PPP.

Mr Babar said the impeachment process would kick off with the adoption of resolutions by all the provincial assemblies next week urging the federal government to ask the president to seek a vote of confidence.

The resolutions would urge the government to move for impeaching the president immediately if he failed to take the vote of confidence, he said.

He said a session of the National Assembly had been convened from Aug 11 as part of the impeachment exercise under Article 47 of the Constitution.

Under the Constitution, the impeachment resolution is to be taken up in a joint sitting of the two houses and two-thirds of the total membership of parliament will be required to adopt it. The motion has to be moved by at least 50 per cent members of either house.

PPP sources said it had been decided that the motion would be submitted in the National Assembly soon after the Independence Day.

The sources said the provincial assemblies would adopt resolutions asking the president to seek a vote of confidence in accordance with his commitment made before the Supreme Court during hearing of petitions challenging his election in October last year.

It is learnt that the resolution will first be passed by the Punjab Assembly, probably on Monday and then by the assemblies of the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan.

According to the sources, the coalition parties hoped that the president would never seek the vote of confidence and the impeachment motion would be tabled in the National Assembly between Aug 15 and 18.

Under the rules, the speaker is bound to send a notice to the president and the joint sitting has to be convened within seven to 14 days after that.

Meanwhile, President Musharraf who has not come out with any statement since the announcement of the impeachment plan, continued consultations with his legal aides and members of the PML-Q.

A source told Dawn that some of the lawyers had suggested to the president to move the Supreme Court asking it to stop the coalition parties from initiating impeachment process.

However, Leader of the House in the Senate Raza Rabbani said that it was the inherent right of parliament, being the electoral college for the presidential election, to move for his impeachment.

“The Supreme Court cannot prevent parliament from discharging its constitutional responsibilities. It is purely a constitutional matter,” he said.

He said it would be unfortunate if the president decided to move the Supreme Court as it would create confrontation between national institutions.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman, meanwhile, claimed that 18 members of the opposition had contacted the coalition since the announcement of the impeachment plan. She told a TV channel that the president’s impeachment would be a historic moment for democracy in Pakistan. It is a process to send a clear message that no individual or institution is above accountability. “It is a step towards democracy and parliamentary sovereignty. We are just implementing the mandate given to us by the public on Feb 18,” she said.

“As far as numbers in parliament are concerned, we have done our homework, and have been contacted by several groups of senators and MNAs from the opposition all through the night, ever since we made the announcement. We already have the support of 18 members of the opposition. They naturally want to be remembered as voting on the right side of history,” she said.

Replying to a question, Ms Rehman warned that the use of Article 58-2(b) to dissolve the assembly could cause more destabilisation at a time when the federation needed democratic forces.

She said the next president should not live in the Army House. “The next president should be a civilian president and will be required to function according to the parameters set for a civilian authority. Democracy entails every institution to work within its mandate, while staying answerable to parliament. We do not want to return to the system where all state organs are subjected to the will of a single institution,” she said.