Musharraf rejects 'pressure or ultimatum'

Pervez Musharraf today rejected “any pressure or ultimatum” to decide whether to quit as army chief, his spokesman said, after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto claimed he would step down under a pact to restore Pakistan to democracy.

The US-allied general and the former prime minister are negotiating an agreement that could end military rule eight years after Musharraf seized power in a coup and see him share power with the opposition.

Officials were unavailable or declined to comment directly on Bhutto’s assertion yesterday that Musharraf had already decided to leave his powerful military post.

However, his office released a statement rejecting reports that Bhutto’s call for concrete commitments by the end of this week amounted to an ultimatum to decide whether to remove his uniform.

While the president believed in dialogue “on all important national issues, he never worked under any pressure or ultimatum,” his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said in a statement.

Musharraf will take “all decisions only in national interest at appropriate times and according to the constitution and the law,” Qureshi said.