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Musharraf to stay on as Army Chief for “democracy” |
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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, whose country in his absence enacted a law allowing him to continue as both President and Army Chief beyond this year, has said that he may retain his dual roles to guarantee “the sustainability of our policies”. Musharraf, who has not himself declared so far that he would continue as Army Chief, the position he earlier pledged to surrender by the end of this year, signalled during an interview to The Washington Post that he may break his promise, which was made as part a deal with an Islamic alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, to passage this controversial amendment ratified to Parliament. Musharraf told the Post that he may retain the dual roles as civilian and military leader to guarantee “the sustainability of our policies”.
His remarks followed Pakistan’s Acting President Muhammad Soomro’s signing of a Bill into law on November 30, when Musharraf was on a tour of Latin American countries, allowing the General to continue in both posts. Apparently, Musharraf refrained from signing the Bill himself after learning about the legal problems he could have faced, as the constitution barred the President from enacting a law that solely benefited him. Gen Musharraf said the amount of work that he had done for democracy even while donning uniform has never been done in the past in Pakistan. Therefore, he said, he did not believe that is the end-all of democracy.
Meanwhile, Islamist parties continued their protest at a rally in Multan to press Musharraf to quit as Army Chief, days after a law was passed allowing him to keep the civilian and military roles.
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