By Nick Allen Sep 18, 2007, 15:34 GMT
Islamabad - As the opposition in Pakistan steps up legal challenges to his re-election, President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday issued an assurance that he will remove his general's uniform and be sworn in as a civilian leader after he receives a further mandate.
'If elected for a second term as president, General 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,' his lawyer, Sharifuddin Pirzada, told the Supreme Court in Islamabad on his behalf, in an apparent move to deflect petitions lodged against his plans to hold onto power.
Shedding his peaked cap and braid is not something that will come easily to the 64-year-old career soldier, who has described military attire as his 'second skin'.
Opposition politicians said this still did not entitle Musharraf to run for another term in a parliamentary vote due before October 15.
But his supporters seized upon the announcement's symbolic value in a country that has been ruled by men in uniform for more than half of its 60-year existence.
Information Minister and close confidant to the president Mohammed Ali Durrani spoke of 'a historic day' that he said demonstrated the president's democratic credentials.
'This announcement begins the peaceful process of the military's relinquishment of power,' Durrani said.
Musharraf loyalists in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) also hailed a 'unique opportunity' for a genuine transition to civilian democracy.
'In the 21st century the country needs stable democracy and the army is willing to take a back seat,' PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain said as his party prepares to use its narrow majority in parliament to grant Musharraf five more years in power.
The party would ensure that Musharraf kept his word, he stressed as he told journalists that '(the era of) uniform is behind us.'
'I think General Musharraf will look equally dashing in his dapper designer suit,' Hussain added.
This is not the first time Musharraf has said he would step down as army chief. In 2002, he promised Pakistan's Islamic parties that he would resign as head of the army by 2004 if they backed a constitutional amendment to legitimize his 1999 military takeover.
Nonetheless, one of his most vehement opponents this year, the head of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Munir Malik, sounded upbeat about the offer.
'This is the result of the lawyers' struggle for the supremacy of law and restoration of democracy. This is a half-victory for us as General Musharraf has at least pledged to doff the uniform,' said Malik, who led protests for the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry after Musharraf suspended him in March for alleged abuse of office.
The issue now is whether a Supreme Court panel appointed by the reinstated Chaudhry will meet any of the 10 petitions filed by opposition parties, civil society organizations and individuals seeking to have Musharraf disqualified as a candidate on various constitutional grounds. The petitions will be heard daily through the week.
Chaudhry already demonstrated his readiness to go against the government in August when he ruled that former prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif could return from exile.
Sharif was deported within hours after landing in Islamabad on September 10, which once again set the president and government on a collision course with the court.
In recent comments to Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Chaudhry's son Arslan said his father had resolved 'to go down in history as the best judge Pakistan has ever had, and he is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to impart justice to everyone.'
According to media reports, Musharraf recently told a senior PML-Q member that if the court now defied him over his election eligibility he would use the option of martial law.
The military ruler's chief foreign ally, the United States, has publicly reminded him of his earlier, unfulfilled pledge to step down as army chief.
While concerned about Musharraf's sinking popularity, panicked moves in the face of opposition activism, and set-backs in the face of rising Islamic extremism, Washington is still thought to regard him as a viable partner.
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