Lahore, May 23 : Amid reports of tensions brewing up between the Presidency and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari over the government drafting a Constitutional package entailing provisions to clip President Pervez Musharraf’s wings, the latter is learnt to have said that he would step down rather than being a “toothless” head of the state.

At a meeting with PML-Q leaders last evening, Musharraf reportedly said that he would resign rather than becoming a ‘toothless president’ like Chaudhry Fazal Elahi or Rafiq Tarar.

Musharraf told Shujaat Hussain and Hamid Nasir Chattha in a meeting on Wednesday that the removal of Article 58 (2b) would pave way for military intervention, the Daily Times quoted Musharraf as telling PML-Q leaders at the meeting.

Media reports over the past few days have suggested that the PPP is drafting a constitutional package which would clip Musharraf’s powers of dissolving the National Assembly, and thus pace the way of his exit from the scene. Following such reports, Musharraf reportedly asked the erstwhile ruling party the PML-Q to strengthen itself both in and out of the Parliament. (ANI)