Pakistani opposition MPs said they would stage a mass resignation on Tuesday in protest at military ruler President Pervez Musharraf's bid to win another five-year term in power.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani opposition MPs said they would stage a mass resignation on Tuesday in protest at military ruler President Pervez Musharraf's bid to win another five-year term in power.
Musharraf, a key US ally who seized control of the nuclear-armed Islamic republic in a bloodless coup in 1999, is standing for re-election on Saturday while keeping his role as army chief.
He is expected to win the vote as his allies have a majority in the national and federal parliaments that are conducting the ballot, but his opponents hope the resignations will cast doubt on its legitimacy.
"We will march to the National Assembly on Tuesday morning where we will submit our resignations to the speaker," Liaquat Baloch, a key leader of the anti-Musharraf Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, said.
The alliance groups the parties of former premier Nawaz Sharif -- the man whom Musharraf ousted -- and cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, plus a clutch of Islamic fundamentalist organisations.
Ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party is not part of the coalition, having held talks with Musharraf on a power-sharing deal, although that has apparently stalled.
In all, 84 federal and 125 provincial MPs will resign, said Baloch, who is also the parliamentary leader of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami party.
The provincial MPs would submit their resignations in the assemblies of Pakistan's four provinces, added Baloch.
"Musharraf will be exposed before the world and people will come to know that he is getting himself elected from an incomplete electoral college," he said.
The alliance had also called for a strike on election day.
Imran Khan's party confirmed that the World Cup-winning former Pakistan cricket captain would also be resigning.
"The present parliament has supported a military dictator. The welfare of the people is only possible with real and true democracy," party spokesman Javed Iqbal said.
The alliance has meanwhile pledged to launch last-ditch legal appeals against Musharraf's election after the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Musharraf was eligible to stand while still in uniform.
Musharraf has said he will quit his military role before November 15 if he wins the election.
The legal victory for Musharraf was however followed the next day by a brutal police crackdown on protesters in Islamabad that left dozens of lawyers and journalists needing hospital treatment.
Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry -- who himself led major rallies after Musharraf tried to sack him in March -- ordered the suspension on Monday of the capital's police chief and two other officials over the violence.
Meanwhile Musharraf's allies on Monday thwarted an opposition plan to dissolve the Islamist-led assembly in North West Frontier Province, a move that could also have damaged the credibility of the presidential vote.
A suicide blast that killed 16 people in northwestern Pakistan highlighted the continuing threat posed by Islamic militants who have in the past tried to assassinate Musharraf.
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