Musharef steps down as Army Chief

[dustdevil28]

Oh that is soooo dictorial of him.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States cautiously welcomed Wednesday Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation as military chief but pushed the "war on terror" ally to lift emergency rule to pave the way for free and fair elections.

"This is a good first step," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC television as Musharraf, 64, bowed to international pressure and quit as army chief to end eight years of military rule.

"But really, for Pakistan, the most stabilizing thing will be to have free and fair elections so that Pakistan can stay and return to a democratic path," Rice said, calling for an end to emergency rule he imposed on November 3 that drew global and domestic outrage.

Musharraf will be sworn in as civilian president on Thursday, his second five-year term as leader of the nuclear-armed nation regarded as a crucial American ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Rice indicated that Washington had been in contact with Musharraf, prodding him to ensure that parliamentary elections he called for on January 8 were credible.

"Free and fair elections need to take place," she told NBC television. "Look, we are talking with the Pakistanis about this. I'm not going to talk about the details of those conversations."

She stressed that "the decision now needs to be taken" to end the emergency. At the White House, spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said Musharraf's uniform shedding "was an important move" but "we continue to encourage the Pakistani government to lift the emergency order and to get back on the path to democracy."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack added: "It's still our hope that President Musharraf will do that."

Pakistan's attorney general Malik Muhammad Qayyum had said that the emergency would be lifted "very soon" but did not give a date.

The opposition maintains that Musharraf's October 6 re-election as president was illegal, claiming he imposed emergency rule to purge the Supreme Court of hostile judges who threatened to overturn his victory.

Calls have intensified for the release of all political detainees, lifting of media curbs and a resinstatement of the 1973 constitution.

With elections just about five weeks way, "it is necessary that emergency rule be lifted immediately and not just two days before that," Lisa Curtis, a former senior State Department advisor on South Asian affairs, told AFP.

She rejected any notion that the departure from the military by Musharraf, who became a frontline US ally in the war on terrorism after the US terror attacks of September 11, 2001, could set back counterterrorism efforts.

Musharraf's hand-picked military successor, General Ashfaq Kiyani, is "well known" to US officials and "is respected for his professionalism and counterinsurgency efforts," said Curtis, who once worked as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Musharraf can now focus on the transition to civilian rule and you could see greater effort and full attention by Kiyani on the fight against terrorism, especially in the tribal areas," said Curtis, now an expert with the Heritage Foundation.

Authorities in Pakistan have also moved to reassure that Musharraf's departure as army chief will not affect its counterrorism commitment, which has drawn massive US funding.

"I don't think doffing of uniform would have any impact on this war on terror," interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.

The country has suffered a record number of suicide bombings in 2007, killing more than 600 people.

news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071128/pl_afp/pakistanpoliticsus

[dustdevil28]

Now he's givin a date when the emergency rule would end. Gosh what a horrible guy.


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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pervez Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as a civilian president Thursday, promising to lift a state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore the constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic opponents and foreign backers.

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In a televised speech hours after taking the oath of office, Musharraf also urged former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif — his two rivals for power who recently returned from exile — not to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.

He said "a level playing field" has been given to their parties, and they and others should "participate fully."

However, he struck an uncompromising tone when insisting that the elections would go on without them, if necessary. "No one will be allowed to destabilize this democratic process or to create hurdles in its way," he said.

"I am determined to lift the emergency by Dec. 16," Musharraf said as he addressed the nation, seated between a portrait of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and a green-and-white national flag. "The elections, God willing, will be held free and transparent under the constitution."

Musharraf imposed emergency rule Nov. 3, casting Pakistan into a deep crisis that raised Western fears for the stability of a nuclear-armed country struggling to turn a rising tide of Islamic militancy.

But having purged the Supreme Court of judges who might have blocked his plan to continue as president, the U.S.-backed leader has moved quickly to ease a wave of repression that saw thousands of opponents jailed and all independent news channels gagged.

The inauguration ceremony came a day after he ended a four-decade military career as part of his long-delayed pledge not to serve as both president and army chief. The post enabled him to topple Sharif in a 1999 coup and hold on to power for nine years.

Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar administered the oath to a solemn-looking Musharraf, dressed in a long black tunic adorned only with a pin of Pakistan's flag.

"This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy," Musharraf told an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and military generals at the state palace in Islamabad.

Neither Bhutto nor Sharif was present at the ceremony, and it remained unclear whether the changeover would defuse the threat of an election boycott. Such a move would undercut Musharraf's effort to legitimize his rule through a democratic ballot.

Sharif said his party and other smaller groups decided in principle at a meeting on Thursday to boycott the ballot. But he said it would talk to Bhutto and a wavering Islamist leader before making a final decision.

Bhutto has said she is reluctant to leave the field open to pro-Musharraf parties.

The Bush administration expressed hope that the opposition would participate and that the election would be fair. The U.S. also urged Musharraf to follow through on his promise to left the state of emergency.

"We look to the candidates and the people to fully participate in these free and fair elections, that they be able to voice their opinions, that they be able to assemble, and that they be able to have the freedom of the press that they had had before the emergency order was in place," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"President Musharraf has indicated that December 16 would be the date. And we hope that he follows through on that," she added.

A day after blinking back tears as he ended his military career, Musharraf appeared to be back to his usual bullish self.

"Anyone who is talking of any boycotts should hear this out: Come hell or high water, elections will be held on Jan. 8. Nobody derails it."

Opposition politicians had urged Musharraf to lift emergency rule, restore the constitution and reverse his decision to oust chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and other independent-minded judges.

During his inaugural speech, Musharraf sought to justify the state of emergency, during which he purged the Supreme Court just as it was about to issue a verdict on the legality of his continued rule. The retooled court last week gave its stamp of approval.

He also lashed out at Western diplomats, giving them a stinging rebuttal of their criticisms.

"I personally feel that there is an unrealistic and maybe an impractical or impracticable obsession with your form of democracy, with your form of human rights, civil liberties," Musharraf said, claiming to speak for developing countries everywhere.

Pakistan wanted to attain those goals, but would need time and support to reach standards that others had built over centuries, he said.

"We will do it our way as we understand our society, our environment better than anyone in the West," he said.

Musharraf also said that stepped-up military action had "broken the back of the spread of terrorism" in the northwest.

Still, a military spokesman said five soldiers died and four were injured in the region Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded next to a passing convoy.

In the eastern city of Lahore, street clashes broke out between police and lawyers protesting against Musharraf's inauguration. Four lawyers and three officers were injured, police said.

About 200 demonstrators — chanting "Go, Musharraf, go!" and "Friends of Musharraf are traitors" — flung bricks and sticks at policemen who blocked their path as they tried to march from one court complex to another, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Musharraf ceded command of the military to a hand-picked loyalist, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.

"I am sure Pakistan will grow stronger with me as civilian president and Gen. Kayani as army chief," Musharraf said.

Sadique al-Farooq, a senior leader of Nawaz Sharif's party, said he hoped that Gen. Kayani would "learn lessons from the mistakes of Musharraf, and will never think of indulging in politics."

In Washington, President Bush praised Musharraf for keeping his word by relinquishing his military post, calling it a "strong first step" toward enhancing democracy in Pakistan.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071129/ap_on_re_as/pakistan

[101ABN]

Musharraf's been a man of his word since he threw in with us after 9/11.

I think he was just doing what he had to do to keep the Islamists in check.

[dustdevil28]

admin said:

Musharraf's been a man of his word since he threw in with us after 9/11.

I think he was just doing what he had to do to keep the Islamists in check.

I wouldn't go that far. He did this for one reason and one reason only, and that is to stay in power. I've tempered my criticism of his actions here because we need him in power as the lesser of two evils and as a continuing bulwark agains extremism in Pakistan. The new Army Chief is supposed to be like him in that he's very accomplished and very anti extremism. Since he'll be able to focus soley on military ops, we may see improvments in their military offensives.