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PAKISTAN: Musharraf Quits, Avoids Impeachment

Amir Mir

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18 2008 (IPS) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office on Monday ending weeks of speculation over whether he would quit or face impeachment on charges of illegally seizing power by a parliament elected in February and dominated by political parties opposed to him.

Musharraf, who grabbed power in a bloodless military coup in October 1999, was compelled to resign after the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, buried differences over the impeachment issue.

Musharraf had kept both Sharif and Bhutto in exile for years. Both returned to fight the general elections but Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27 while on campaign. There was no immediate word on whether Musharraf himself would now leave the country.

In his last days in office Musharraf found himself isolated. Pakistan’s powerful army – of which he was chief until November – decided to stay neutral. And the party he nurtured, the Pakistan Muslim League – Qaid (PML-Q), began to distance itself as soon as he handed over command of the army to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Musharraf was also under increasing criticism by Washington for failing to keep the promises he made to fight elements of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda that had dug in along the rugged the Pakistan- Afghanistan border and were offering resistance to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

But officials said Musharraf’s friends in the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia stepped in to ensure a safe exit for him.

In his hour-long address over the state-run Pakistan TV, Musharraf, a former commando, showed strong nerves. “No charge sheet can stand against me. Not even a single charge can be proven against me as I have full trust in Allah Almighty and I did everything with the belief of Pakistan First.”

”This is not time for individual bravado. [Whether] I lose or win in impeachment proceedings, the Pakistani nation will be the loser,” Musharraf said in his address. He was convinced that the ‘’honor and dignity of the country will be affected [by the resignation] and in my view, the honor of the office of president will also be affected’’.

His opponents thought different. “It’s a victory for all democratic forces and it’s victory for Benazir Bhutto and all those who sacrificed their lives for democracy,” said PPP spokeswoman Farzana Raja.

Musharraf, who had been adamant for the last two weeks not to resign and instead face impeachment proceedings, announced that after consultations with his legal advisers and close political supporters, he has decided to resign in the larger national interest.

‘’I hope the nation and the people of Pakistan will forgive my mistakes as I believe that whatever I have done in the past was in good faith; for the betterment of the people, and for the country”.

‘’Even if the impeachment fails, Musharraf said, ‘’relations between the presidency and the parliament will never be the same again. As ‘Pakistan first’ has been my philosophy, I eventually decided to quit without creating a fuss in the supreme national interest”.

‘’He [Musharraf] tried to justify pretty much what he had done, but I think at the end of the day this was the only option, because the space for him to remain president had shrunk so much that it had become impossible to carry on,’’ said information minister and PPP member Sherry Rehman, reacting to the address.

As army general Musharraf was responsible for masterminding the 1999 armed incursions into the Indian part of the divided territory of Kashmir at Kargil, that triggered off a military standoff between the South Asian countries. A full-scale war was averted between the nuclear-armed neighbours only because of Western intervention led by Washington.

In the October of 1999 Musharraf seized power by ousting a government led by Sharif. He succeeded in fending off international calls for the restoration of democracy mostly by reinventing himself as a key ally of the U.S. in the ‘war on terror’ in neighbouring Afghanistan.

A grateful Washington pumped in more than ten billion dollars worth of aid meant for the war effort, that indirectly helped Musharraf stave off challenges to his rule. Questions are now being asked as to how and where that money was actually spent.

Musharraf’s luck began to run out in March last year when he tried to oust the chief justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Chaudhry, triggering an open confrontation with the country’s influential legal fraternity.

In November he forced his own re-election for another five-year term and sacked 60 members of country’s higher judiciary, when they refused to endorse a state of emergency he ordered. But his political allies were defeated by the PPP and the PML-N in the February elections, sealing his fate.