Musharraf to Give Up Army Post If Re-Elected

By Matthew Pennington Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will resign as army chief and restore civilian rule if lawmakers re- elect him president in a vote expected by mid-October, officials said Tuesday.

The government hailed the decision as a democratic watershed, but the opposition said it would be illegal for Musharraf to run in uniform and threatened a boycott of the vote that could prolong Pakistan’s political instability.

Government attorney Sharifuddin Pirzada announced Musharraf’s intent in a statement to Supreme Court judges deliberating the military leader’s eligibility to seek a new five-year term.

It was the first clear official statement that Musharraf was ready to end direct military rule since he seized control of the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear power in a coup eight years ago.

“If elected for the second term as president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish charge of the office of the chief of army staff soon after election but before taking the oath of office of the president of Pakistan for the next term,” Pirzada said.

The move could ease fears that Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war in terrorism, is veering toward authoritarian rule as Pakistan approaches critical elections.

Last week, he deported Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he deposed in 1999, hours after the opposition leader returned from exile, despite a Supreme Court ruling saying Sharif was free to come back. Allies of the president have also repeatedly warned that he could declare a state of emergency to prevent chaos.

Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said the announcement proved that Musharraf, Pakistan’s third military ruler in its 60- year history, believed in democracy.

“This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that the army will retreat (from government) through a smooth transition to a complete and real democracy,” Durrani said.

Mushahid Hussain, secretary-general of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, predicted Musharraf’s decision “will lower the political temperature” and said Pakistan had moved on from a spell of military rule that damaged its international image.

But with the opposition digging in its heels and legal challenges still hanging over Musharraf’s re-election bid, the announcement looked unlikely to calm Pakistan’s choppy political waters. Musharraf made a similar promise to resign as army chief in 2004 and later reneged on it.

Calls for the military leader to step down have multiplied since his failed attempt to fire the Supreme Court’s top judge in March. He also faces a wave of violence blamed on Taliban and al-Qaida militants which has intensified discontent with his alliance with the United States.

In the latest fighting, militants overran a military outpost near the Afghan border, killing 15 soldiers. Some 14 militants also died in Monday’s clash, the army said.

The ruling coalition remains confident that it has enough votes to re-elect Musharraf in a ballot of federal and provincial lawmakers due by Oct. 15, a month before the end of his current term. Parliamentary elections are to follow by January.

But Sharif’s party and a hardline Islamic coalition, Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, have already declared they will resign from Parliament and boycott the presidential vote. They say Musharraf should seek a mandate from a new Parliament rather than the current assemblies that were elected in flawed polls in 2002 and will soon be dissolved.

On Tuesday, the party of exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose talks with Musharraf over a possible power-sharing deal have stalled, threatened to join them.

It condemned Musharraf’s re-election plan as unconstitutional and undemocratic and said it was considering whether to “resign from the present parliament or whether it would boycott the elections” if Musharraf runs in uniform.

The party’s information secretary Sherry Rehman demanded the government take “steps for national reconciliation” — dropping corruption cases against Bhutto and other politicians and let her run for a third term as prime minister.

Musharraf could yet need Bhutto’s party to help pass constitutional amendments to overcome his legal woes.

Lawyers groups and opposition leaders are already challenging the lawfulness of his seeking a new term, including a rule change announced Monday by the Election Commission lifting a constitutional bar on civil servants, including army officers, from standing for election.

(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.