Pakistan ? The move to impeach unpopular President Pervez Musharraf started slowly Monday, indicating that the ruling coalition may try to force Musharraf to resign, as the former army chief’s backers insisted he would fight any impeachment to the finish.

The powerful Punjab provincial assembly overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence vote against Musharraf, 321-25. The other three provincial assemblies are expected to take similar votes in the coming days.

Although the votes are non-binding under the constitution, they increase pressure on Musharraf and lay the groundwork for the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, to start official impeachment proceedings, expected to take a month or so.

“We have closed the door on Musharraf,” said Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province and the brother of Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister who runs the coalition’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and was overthrown by army chief Musharraf in 1999.