ISLAMABAD, Aug 5 Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani assured the National Assembly on Wednesday his government would try former military president Pervez Musharraf for high treason if the lower house demanded such a course through a unanimous resolution.

The surprise statement came in response to one by Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who said his PML-N party would move a resolution in the house to demand for the retired general's trial on the charge of subverting Pakistan's Constitution if the government failed to act on these lines even after last week's Supreme Court ruling that nullified the Nov 3, 2007, emergency proclamation made by Gen Musharraf as army chief.

“I am with you,” Mr Gilani said, while referring to the opposition leader's hard-hitting speech made before the prime minister came to the house and added “If the whole house decides (such course) in a unanimous resolution we will implement it.”

The 16-month-old PPP-led coalition government had in the past been side-stepping demands, mainly from the PML-N, to invoke Article 6 of the Constitution to try Gen Musharraf for high treason, which is punishable with death, for his Oct 12, 1999, coup that toppled then PML-N prime minister Nawaz Sharif and for the Nov 3 emergency, which the July 31 ruling by a 14-judge Supreme Court bench declared — along with other related decrees — as “unconstitutional, ultra-vires of the Constitution and consequently being illegal and of no legal effect”.

While the new parliament did not endorse the Nov 3 action under which more than 60 judges of the superior courts were sacked, Mr Gilani's statement on Wednesday was the clearest indication of a change of policy of what critics saw as a “safe exit” to the fourth military ruler in Pakistan's six-decade history as part of an alleged deal with him, which the government has repeatedly denied.

The Constitution's Article 6 says “Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.”

The High Treason Punishment Act of 1973 authorises only the federal government to initiate proceedings under Article 6 and provides for the guilty to be sentenced to death or transportation for life, which means 25 years in prison.

Mr Gilani spoke after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan went to his desk apparently to brief him about Chaudhry Nisar's speech, which was highly critical of the government for allegedly providing undue protocol and facilities to what he called an “absconding” Musharraf even while he was on a foreign tour now, treating parliament as rubber-stamp forum as was under Musharraf, lacking in transparency and good governance and “begging” for talks with India despite what he saw as New Delhi's hesitation.

The opposition leader said he hoped the government would take steps in “a few days” to invoke Article 6 against the former dictator and added that if it did not happen his party had decided to bring a resolution during the current National Assembly session to demand for such a course.

He told the government it was time for it to take credit now when the Supreme Court ruling had distinguished between “halal and haram” (right and wrong) and said “You move forward, we will move with you.”

“You bring the resolution,” the prime minister responded to Chaudhry Nisar after ambiguous speeches on the same subject from government-allied MQM and the opposition PML-Q, and said his government would not be found wanting.

Mr Gilani denied any hesitation to bring a new accountability process to replace the notorious National Accountability Bureau and said he had issued directives for a bill to be brought to parliament for the purpose while he had also discussed with provincial chief ministers how to bring austerity in government.

He also rejected the charge of “begging” for talks with India contrary to national honour and said he consulted leaders of all political parties, including Mr Nawaz Sharif, before meeting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month on the fringes of a non-aligned summit at the Egytian resort of Sharm El Sheikh and that all had favoured dialogue to settle problems between the two countries. “I had full support and mandate of the nation,” he added.

PML-Q's Riaz Hussain Pirzada said his party of former Musharraf loyalists would choose its stance about invoking Article 6 of the Constitution after the two largest parties - PPP and PML-N -- had decided their course of action and called for taking all parties into confidence.

MQM's deputy parliamentary leader Haider Abbas Rizvi seemed annoyed by an open call to his party by the opposition leader to change vis-à-vis its one-time close ties with Gen Musharraf, recalling bloody anti-MQM crackdowns in Karachi under the PPP and PML-N governments in the 1990s, but said the house had to take “extraordinary decisions” for which “the parties have take each other into confidence”.