ISLAMABAD, 19 September 2007 — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will step down as army chief only if he wins re-election, his lawyer told the Supreme Court yesterday.
“If elected for a second term as president, Gen. Musharraf shall relinquish charge of the office of chief of army staff soon after elections and before taking the oath of president for the second term,” Sharifuddin Pirzada told the Supreme Court. Opposition parties quickly denounced the move.
The lawyer, a close aide to Musharraf, was speaking during a hearing into legal challenges by the opposition against the Pakistani leader’s rule.
In a written statement submitted by Pirzada and Attorney General Malik Qayyum before the nine-member bench President Musharraf gave an undertaking that he would shed his uniform before taking oath of office as president if re-elected.
When Pirzada submitted the statement, one of the petitioners, Akram Shaikh, said, “Musharraf should have designated his successor in the army before going for re-election.”
Musharraf is seeking re-election by the outgoing Parliament in a vote that is due before Oct. 15. If he wins he is expected to take the oath within a month, as the government says his current term expires on Nov. 15.
“The time has come for Musharraf to shed his military uniform,” Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem told AFP. “It is a matter of days and not weeks now.”
Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party dismissed Musharraf’s pledge yesterday.
The PPP said its deputies could resign from Parliament if the government does not take more steps for national reconciliation, although added that its strategy was not yet finalized.
“The PPP has made it very clear at all points that it cannot accept a president in uniform. Gen. Musharraf’s decision to get himself re-elected in uniform is both unconstitutional and undemocratic,” the party said in a statement.
Political analyst Kamal Matinuddin, a former Pakistani ambassador, said that Musharraf had faced up to the inevitable. “Musharraf knew he had to take this decision one day,” he said. “He could not prolong it (the dual role as president and army chief) without amending the constitution but he lacks the necessary two-thirds majority in Parliament” to do so.
There is also controversy after Pakistan’s Election Commission changed an electoral rule that previously forbade any officials — including army officers like Musharraf — from standing for election within two years of retiring. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party rejected Musharraf’s pledge to quit as army chief.
“We are challenging Musharraf’s eligibility as a candidate for president in uniform. He cannot file his nomination, he is not a valid candidate,” senior party member Raja Zafarul Haq, a former law minister, told AFP.
In another development, intelligence agencies have asked Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, and some Cabinet ministers to restrict their movements after reports of possible attempts on their lives.
