Islamabad - A Pakistani newspaper said Thursday embattled
President Pervez Musharraf has decided to resign and a formal
announcement was expected soon.
The retired general, who took over in a bloodless coup in 1999,
has been under immense pressure to leave the office since February 18
elections which saw his political allies defeated outright.
The president 'has made up his mind to call it a day and he can
make an announcement in this regard anytime,' the English-language
daily The News reported, quoting what it called highly placed
sources.
A presidential spokesman refuted the report as 'absolutely
nonsense.'
'There is no such thing, there is nothing like this under any sort
of consideration. The president is performing his duties. There is a
delegation meeting him and he is in office,' Rashid Qureshi told Dawn
news channel.
The newspaper article said the president had finally lost hope of
political survival and decided to opt for a retired life.
The report came five days after country's ruling coalition, led by
slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP),
announced it was cutting Musharraf's powers through constitutional
amendments, turning him from an all-powerful leader into a mere
ceremonial president.
Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari who now leads the PPP, said
Saturday he hoped that by stripping Musharraf of powers to dissolve
the parliament and government, and appoint the commanders of the
armed forces, the president could be forced to leave voluntarily.
'We intend him to walk away rather than impeach him away,' he
said.
Musharraf, a key US ally in the fight against Islamic extremists,
began losing popularity in March 9, 2007, when he removed the
independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was restored
five months later by a defiant judiciary.
But the president, who was then also still head of the army,
repeated the measure under an emergency order on November 3 that
also sacked 60 top judges together with Chaudhry, just as the Supreme
Court was preparing to rule on his controversial re-election for the
next presidential term.
Under immense international pressure, Musharraf shed his uniform,
lifted the emergency and held parliamentary elections - in which his
ally Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid was thrashed by PPP and Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Despite his unpopularity, Musharraf remained in power mainly due
to support from the military that is now thinning away.
Some media reports suggested recently that tensions have risen
between him and the new army chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who has
recently replaced president's loyal from the command of the elite 111
Brigade that was at the forefront in most of coups.
According to The News, Kayani had an 'extremely important meeting'
with Musharraf late Wednesday night that lasted for more than three
and half hours.
The report, titled 'General Kayani looks Musharraf in the eye,'
did not give further details about the meeting but linked it
indirectly with the president's alleged decision to resign.
It also claimed that the president had been warned by 'important
officials' not to think about any extra-constitutional steps like
dissolving the government for his survival.
'The drop scene of the drama that started on March 9 last year is
bound to appear any time soon,' claimed The News.
A military spokesman also denied the report saying Kyani held a
'routine meeting' with Musharraf.
But the swirl of rumors caused a major fall in country's main
Karachi Stock Exchange, where the key KSE-100 index plunged by
4.5 percent. Stocks recovered somewhat following the denials from
presidential and military spokesmen.
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