ISLAMABAD, 16 September 2004 — Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will stay on as head of the army and as the country’s president, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said yesterday.
“The president will keep both the posts. The national situation demands that he keeps the two offices,” Ahmed said.
When asked why Musharraf was going back on a promise to quit as army chief, Ahmed said: “The situation has changed.”
The decision comes after weeks of speculation, some fueled by Musharraf himself, that he was considering backing out of an agreement he reached in December with a hard-line religious political block to give up his army post.
Musharraf, who emerged as a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, said earlier this month that he felt most people in the country wanted him to remain in both positions.
“Ninety-six percent (of people) will say ‘do not remove (the army uniform),”’ he said.
Those comments drew an angry response from the opposition, which accused the military leader of having a “lust for power.”
Yesterday the opposition accused Musharraf of lying to the nation.
Musharraf survived two attempts on his life in December in Rawalpindi — a city adjacent to the capital that is the headquarters of the Pakistan Army, and from which Musharraf commuted to his presidential offices.
He announced earlier this month he was moving the army headquarters to Islamabad, an indication to many that he was not expecting to leave either post anytime soon.
There was no immediate reaction to Musharraf’s decision by the international community.
The general allowed parliamentary elections in October 2002 and turned day-to-day running of the country over to a civilian prime minister.
However, he pushed through constitutional amendments that give him the power to dismiss the premier and sack Parliament at his choosing.
The deal reached in December between Musharraf and the opposition resulted in a constitutional amendment that appeared to bar a single person from holding both the top army spot and the presidency as of Jan. 1, 2005. But Ahmed said there was an escape clause.
“The president can keep both the offices. There is no constitutional complication,” he said.
The details of the deal with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition were never publicized, and Musharraf claims the party broke its promise by failing to support him in a parliamentary vote of confidence soon after the constitutional amendments were approved in January this year.
In a bid to pressure him to stick to the deal, MMA lawmakers in the country’s conservative North West Frontier Province approved a nonbinding resolution earlier yesterday demanding that Musharraf quit the army job.
The call was backed by 55 members, against 14 who rejected it, in the provincial assembly. The legislature’s vote carries no legal weight.
Abdul Akbar Khan, a lawmaker from former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, introduced the resolution in the 124-member house.
On Monday, the legislature in eastern Punjab, where a pro-Musharraf group has a majority, adopted a resolution saying Musharraf should continue as army chief “for his policy against terrorism and economic stability.”
