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India-Pakistan
Pakistan president to quit as army chief
2007-08-29
Ever get that feeling, in watching a horse race, that your horse is beginning to slip back in the pack?
PAKISTAN'S weakened President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to resign as army chief in a power-sharing deal with exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

General Musharraf had previously insisted he would remain army chief while standing for re-election, but a deepening political crisis appears to have forced the key ally in the US-led war on terror to compromise.

After months of secretive political horse-trading, Mrs Bhutto - who has consistently said she would not strike a deal with General Musharraf unless he stepped down as army chief - said this week that the issue of the President being in military uniform had been resolved. "The uniform issue is key and there has been a lot of movement on it in the recent round of talks," she said, referring to negotiations in London, where she has been based.

A few days ago the Supreme Court ruled that another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom General Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999, was allowed to return from exile.
I think that's the moment historians will look back at and say Perv lost it. And the harbinger was Perv's inability to oust the Chief Justice and keep him out.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Sharif said he planned to return to Pakistan within a fortnight to lead a campaign to oust General Musharraf.

Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, said sources close to the President had confirmed he had offered to retire from the army, the main source of his authority, before being re-elected as a civilian president next month and general elections early next year.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who held talks with General Musharraf on Monday, said: "The President has made up his mind on his uniform. He'll make an announcement at an appropriate time."

Mrs Bhutto said that in this week's talks General Musharraf placed a new issue on the negotiating table by seeking her support over his eligibility to be re-elected. General Musharraf, faced by an increasingly bold Supreme Court, has asked Mrs Bhutto to support a constitutional amendment allowing him to be re-elected.

Mrs Bhutto said the Government would have to make "an upfront gesture of reciprocity, a clear indication of political support for the Pakistan People's Party".

Mrs Bhutto, who served twice as prime minister but whose tenure ended amid allegations of corruption and will again, said her party wanted to see signs that General Musharraf's ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, was no longer calling the shots.

Mrs Bhutto wanted immunity from prosecution, the lifting of a ban on a prime minister serving a third term and the presidential power to dismiss governments to be curbed. "We are close to an agreement but we are still not there," she said, adding that the deadline for any deal was the end of the month.

Mr Sharif's pledge to return to Pakistan presents an immediate challenge to both General Musharraf and Mrs Bhutto, whose dealings with a military dictator have tarnished her party.

Mr Sharif told The Daily Telegraph that General Musharraf's offer to step down as army chief was too little, too late. "Musharraf does not qualify to be a presidential candidate, whether in or out of uniform," he said in London. "He has lost credibility and the people of Pakistan want him out."

Behind the scenes, the United States and Britain are trying to forge an alliance between the military ruler and Mrs Bhutto.
Posted by:tipper

#4  Perv wasn't ruthless enough to
a) purge the ISI Islamists
b) purge the Army Islamists
c) purge the poltical party Islamists
d) purge the corrupt politicians

I guess he felt he couldn't run the country by himself
Posted by: Frank G   2007-08-29 20:59  

#3  I love it, grass roots info sharing at it's very best, man to man.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-08-29 18:34  

#2  The previous time I went to get a haircut (for $6 at a sole propriator, and almost totally black patronate, shop on 8th St SE in Wash DC) the barber (who may have mistakenly thought I was important since I was white) asked me a bunch of questions about Pakistan, including why Musharraf should be allowed to be both Prez and Army Chief.

I'm due for a haircut again. However, I'm going to need to go through my briefing book first.
Posted by: mhw   2007-08-29 16:46  

#1  potentially huge.

The islamists inside the paki army wont like it much.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2007-08-29 13:19  

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