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.

Musharraf was also expected to address the nation this evening.

Musharraf is opening a new career as civilian president of Pakistan after stepping down from his military command and earning praise from allies abroad and critics at home for relaxing his grip on power.

“Musharraf retires to full-time politics,” said a front-page headline in the respected Dawn newspaper.

Musharraf, who was both president and military commander after seizing power in a 1999 coup, bid a tearful farewell to more than four-decades of military career yesterday when he handed his ceremonial baton to a successor he had appointed weeks ago – Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad.

The US, keen to promote democracy while keeping Pakistan focused on fighting Islamic extremism, praised the outgoing general for easing his control over the country.

There was a similar response from one of Pakistan’s key opposition leaders. “We welcome Musharraf’s decision to shed the uniform,” former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said. “Now the Pakistani army has got a full-fledged chief and they can better perform their duties.”

But she said her party will “not take any decision in haste” on whether it could accept Musharraf as head of state.

And Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister newly returned from long exile, said yesterday, “Musharraf taking oath as president has no legitimacy.”

Musharraf’s military retirement was part of what he hopes will be a smooth transition toward democracy, eight years after he seized power in a bloodless coup.

However, he has secured a new term as president only after using his authority over the army to impose an emergency on Nov. 3, sweep away judges who might have stood in his way and silence most of his critics with arrests and a media gag.

In protest, opposition parties are threatening to boycott the January 8 parliamentary elections – a move which could wreck the hopes of Musharraf’s Western supporters for a stable, moderate government able to keep the pressure on al Qaida and the Taliban.

“He got the verdict in his favour from a court which is not acceptable to the nation,” Sharif said. He demanded a “complete rollback” to the situation before November 3.

“Unless the judiciary is restored ... no matter what action he takes, we cannot compromise,” he said.

Asked about Musharraf’s retirement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that US President George Bush “certainly considers that to be a good step.”

But Perino reiterated that Bush wants Musharraf to lift the emergency order, and do so before the elections.

Under the emergency, the former chief justice and other independent judges have been placed under house arrest. Their pliant replacements, including the new chief justice of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hameed Dogar, approved Musharraf’s controversial election victory last week.