Musharraf to take oath as civilian president

Pakistan’s president was embarking on a new, five-year term as a civilian president today, after bidding an emotional farewell a day earlier to his job as chief of the army – the source of most of his sweeping political powers.

Pervez Musharraf was to be sworn in at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Islamabad later today by the Supreme Court’s chief justice, a loyalist who struck down legal challenges to his struggle to stay in power.