President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan came under mounting pressure to resign yesterday when the ruling coalition drew up impeachment charges and said it would present them to parliament as soon as Tuesday.

But Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, appeared determined to wait until the charge-sheet was filed to decide whether to step down or to fight the impeachment through parliament or the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, backroom negotiations involving the army and Saudi, American and British officials were underway to try to secure a dignified yet definitive departure for the increasingly unpopular president, who was Army chief until last year.

Mr Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led War on Terror, wants the government to indemnify all his actions as President before he considers resigning, but the government says it will consider an amnesty only after he steps down.

A source familiar with the negotiations told The Times that a deal providing Mr Musharraf with protection from legal challenges after his retirement was still possible.

If he does not reach one soon, however, his waning support in parliament means that he is almost certain to become the first President to be impeached in Pakistan’s 61-year history, according to analysts and diplomats.

Sherry Rehman, the Information Minister, said that the government had finalised an impeachment chargesheet and would present it tomorrow to the coalition’s leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.

“It is a historic document,” she told reporters. “Musharraf still has some time to resign.” Ahmed Mukhtar, the Defence Minister, said the charge-sheet would be presented to a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate - the two houses of parliament - by tomorrow.

“There is no room for any delay,” said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister, who had earlier given Mr Musharraf until the end of the weekend to decide whether to quit.

A spokesman for Mr Musharraf has repeatedly denied that the president, who won a new term in a disputed election last year after declaring a state of emergency, is going to resign.

But Malik Qayyum, Pakistan’s attorney general and a close ally of the president, said that Mr Musharraf would wait until the impeachment motion was filed before choosing how to proceed.

One of the main opponents of an amnesty for Mr Musharraf is Mr Sharif, a former prome minister who was ousted in the 1999 coup and sent into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Sharif returned last year and now leads the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the second biggest group in the ruling coalition after the Pakistan People’s Party of the late Benazir Bhutto.

The prospects of a compromise appeared to have brightened over the weekend after the intervention of Saudi Arabia, a major financial and political supporter of Pakistan.

Muqrin Bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi intelligence chief who helped to broker Mr Sharif’s return, met Mr Musharraf and some other Pakistani officials on Friday in an effort to break the impasse.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the former British High Commissioner to Pakistan, and US officials have also been involved in the negotiations.

Mr Musharraf has been consulting his personal legal advisers over the possibility of challenging any impeachment move in the Supreme Court, which he packed with allies last year. He also has the power to dismiss parliament.

But most political observers agree that either move would only aggravate a political crisis that began in March last year when he tried to sack an independent-minded Chief Justice, sparking nationwide lawyers’ protests.

One option that has been suggested is for Mr Musharraf to go into exile in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain or Turkey, where he spent some of his childhood, but none of those countries have confirmed such plans.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said today that Washington was not considering granting asylum to Mr Musharraf.

“That’s not an issue on the table, and I just want to keep our focus on what we must do with the democratic government of Pakistan,” she told Fox News.

Asked if it would be in Pakistan’s best interest for Mr Musharraf to resign, she said: “This is a matter for the Pakistanis to resolve.”

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