Pakistan cheers as Musharraf surrenders post
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday as the president of Pakistan, avoiding a power struggle with rivals vowing to impeach him.
His exit, announced in an emotional televised address, leaves the politicians who pushed out the stalwart U. S. ally to face the Islamic militants and economic problems gnawing at this nuclear-armed nation.
In cities across Pakistan, crowds gathered to celebrate, some firing automatic weapons into the sky, others dancing in the streets.
“There is a huge challenge ahead,” said Shafqat Mahmood, a former government minister and prominent political analyst. “Now this whole Musharraf excuse is behind us. Now people are going to be focusing on their performance.” Musharraf’s departure after nearly nine years in power was widely expected after months of rising pressure for him to leave, culminating in the threat to bring impeachment charges to Parliament this week.
The 65-year-old former general was a diminished figure since he resigned as army chief in November and found himself cut out of policymaking by the civilian government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered “deep gratitude” for Musharraf’s decision to join the U. S.-led fight against extremists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying he “served as a good ally of the United States.” But she has signaled strong support for the civilian government that pushed him aside.
“We believe that respect for the democratic and constitutional processes in that country is fundamental to Pakistan’s future and its fight against ter- rorism,” Rice said.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood, asked Monday about Musharraf’s fall, said, “The war against extremism is bigger than any one person. What’s important here is that we work with Pakistan to do what we can to root out these extremists.” Perhaps the greatest concern is what one senior Bush administration official recently termed “steadfast efforts” by the extremist groups to infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear laboratories, the heart of a vast infrastructure that employs tens of thousands of people. Some of the efforts, officials said, are believed to have involved Pakistani scientists trained abroad.
Pakistan’s weapons themselves are considered less of a concern because of a secret program launched by the Bush administration, with Musharraf’s consent, to help train Pakistani security forces to keep the weapons safe.
But U. S. officials say they do not know the details of how much of that money was spent, and they have been barred from reviewing key aspects of the security procedures.
In an hour-long address devoted largely to defending his record, Musharraf listed the many problems now facing Pakistan, including its sinking economy and a chronic power shortage, and suggested his opponents were targeting him to mask their own failings.
“I am going with the satisfaction that whatever I have done was for the people and for the country.... I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes,” he said.
By 5 p. m., Musharraf had been granted a ceremonial departure composed of a military guard of honor, and he left the presidential building for the last time. He headed to an army house in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Islamabad, where he has lived as president.
He will stay there for the next few days before moving elsewhere in Islamabad, perhaps to a house he is building in an exclusive enclave on the outskirts of the city.
Officials said it is likely that Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 military coup, will soon leave the country, possibly to live in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai. He negotiated immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for events during his rule, assurances that smoothed his resignation, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“It is very pleasing to know that Musharraf is no more,” said Mohammed Saeed, a shopkeeper in a crowd of people dancing to drum beats and hugging each other at an intersection in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
“He even tried to deceive the nation in his last address. He was boasting about economic progress when life for people like us has become a hell,” he said, because of problems that include runaway inflation.
But many revelers were already thinking to the future.
“The government had been blaming Musharraf for inflation, power cuts and the weak economy, and since now he has resigned, we hope that the government will take steps to make our life better,” said Asma Bibi, a housewife in the central city of Multan.
The government said Musharraf’s retreat was a victory for democracy over dictatorship. Pakistan has spent about half its 61-year history under military rule.
“His resignation clears the way for our government to get on with... providing to the people of Pakistan basic social services, economic opportunities, political security and law and order,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.
Pakistan’s stock market and currency both rose strongly on hopes the country was bound for political stability.
However, analysts say the coalition must quickly clear two more political hurdles in order to survive: elect a new president and resolve the country’s judicial crisis.
According to the constitution, parliament must elect a new president within 30 days. There has been speculation that both Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, the leaders of the two main parties, are interested in the role. However, neither has openly said so, and both have vowed to strip the post of much of its power.
One of the other candidates mentioned is Aftab Shaban Mirani, a former minister of defense and a longtime stalwart of the Pakistan People’s Party.
Senate Speaker Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the upper house of Parliament, took over as interim president, but is viewed as a Musharraf loyalist with no chance of keeping the job.
The coalition also faces huge pressure from public opinion and lawyers who have protested against Musharraf for more than a year to restore the Supreme Court judges ousted when Musharraf imposed emergency rule last year.
Those moves undercut Musharraf’s already sinking popularity and helped propel his allies to defeat in February elections.
The coalition that replaced them was founded on a pledge to restore the judges that has remained unfulfilled.
Law Minister Farooq Naek said Monday that the “modalities” of how and when the judges will return were still open.
Talat Masood, a former army general turned political analyst, forecast the coalition would find compromises for both the presidency and the judiciary, partly because neither wants to tackle the country’s problems alone.
“It’s a huge challenge, and they cannot face it individually. It’s very important for them to work together and I think they know that,” he said.
However, Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper, forecast that wrangling in the coalition — the two main parties fought bitterly for power in the 1990 s, when both were stained by allegations of corruption — will hamper policymaking.
“America wants some immediate decisions [on fighting terrorism ], and I don’t think they will be able to concentrate on that,” Sethi said. “On the other hand are the people of this country, the business community, and there, too, I don’t see any new initiatives.” The U. S.-backed Afghan government welcomed Musharraf’s resignation, saying he “was not someone good for Afghanistan” and his departure will have a positive effect on the region.
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of being behind an April assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and the July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 60 people. Karzai’s spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, reiterated a standing Afghan government demand that Pakistan’s military intelligence service cease its activities in Afghanistan.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said Musharraf was an ally of the United States in words only. He said Afghanistan wants a Pakistani president who pursues peace by his actions, and not only through words.
Musharraf “was not someone good for Afghanistan,” said Bashary. “We hope that someone good will replace him.” In Pakistan’s historic rival India, there were concerns that Musharraf’s departure will leave a power vacuum. Officials have recently said they are worried Pakistan’s new civilian government does not have enough control over hawkish elements in the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and that Pakistan-based militant groups will have freer rein with Musharraf gone.
“In this vacuum, they may see a period to step up activity. In this time of uncertainty, that is something that India needs to be alert to,” said C. Uday Bhaskar, a defense analyst in New Delhi.
Indian officials said they hoped Musharraf’s resignation would not affect the peace process between the two nucleararmed rivals. The process is at its lowest point in four years following the July bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan — an attack India also blames on Pakistan — and repeated shootings along the heavily fortified frontier in Kashmir, the Himalayan region at the center of the rivalry between the two South Asian nations. Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Graham, Asif Shahzad, Munir Ahmad, Zarar Khan, Riaz Khan, Khalid Tanveer, Foster Klug, Kathy Gannon, Matthew Rosenberg and Jason Straziuso of The Associated Press; by Jane Perlez, Salman Masood, Mark Mazzetti and David E. Sanger of The New York Times; and by Candace Rondeaux and Shaiq Hussein of The Washington Post.
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