Musharraf stays on as president

GENERAL Pervez Musharraf will stay on as Pakistan’s president beyond 2007, despite earlier indications that he would stand down.

“Musharraf will remain the president of Pakistan even after 2007,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said yesterday.

After seizing power in a coup in 1999, Mr Musharraf held elections in 2002. However, his failure to resign as the army chief in December 2004, as he had promised, raised doubts about his commitment to democracy.