The head of the party leading Pakistan's ruling coalition unveiled proposed constitutional changes on Saturday that would take away President Pervez Musharraf's powers. "We intend to walk him away, rather than impeach him away," said Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded his late wife Benazir Bhutto as leader of the Pakistan People's Party after her assassination last December.Zardari said the amendments would remove the president's right to dismiss the government and pass responsibility for appointing heads of the armed services and provincial governors to the prime minister. The proposed amendments included a bar on a president running for office for more than two terms.
The PPP has to consult its three coalition allies over the 62 proposed amendments, that could be put before parliament by the end of June. The coalition allies defeated pro-Musharraf parties in a general election in February, and a government was sworn in at the end of March under Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a PPP loyalist picked by Zardari.