Musharraf announces resignation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation yesterday in the face of looming impeachment charges, ending a turbulent nine years in power.

The former Army Chief, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, had been under huge pressure to quit before the coalition government launched the first impeachment proceedings in Pakistan’s 61-year history.

“After viewing the situation and consulting legal advisers and poltical allies, with their advice I have decided to resign,” a grim-faced Musharraf, wearing a sober suit and tie, said in a televised address to the nation.

“I leave my future in the hands of the people.”

Musharraf said he would hand his resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly, or Lower House of Parliament.

“On the map of the world, Pakistan is now an important country, by the grace of Allah,” he said.

The President insisted he had always led in “good faith,” especially in facing economic problems and the threat of Islamic militancy, and said that his opponents had made “false allegations” against him.

“Pakistan first has been my philosophy,” he said. “Unfortunately, some elements acting for vested interests levelled false allegations against me and deceived people,” Musharraf said.

“They never realised that they could be successful against me, but they never thought how detrimental it would be for the country.” Musharraf’s popularity slumped last year amid his attempts to oust the country’s chief justice and then during a wave of Taliban suicide bombings that killed more than 1,000 people, including former premier Benazir Bhutto.

He imposed a state of emergency in November last year to force his re-election to another five-year term through the Supreme Court, but his political allies were trounced at the February polls.

The coalition of parties which won the February election, led by Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, finally overcame months of divisions and agreed to impeach Musharraf on August 7.

It piled on the pressure with no-confidence votes in Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies last week. Then on Sunday it said it had drawn up impeachment charges and would lodge them in parliament this week. The charges reportedly included violation of the constitution and gross misconduct. Officials say that Musharraf’s aides have been in talks with the coalition, brokered by Saudi Arabia, the United States and Britain, to allow him to quit in return for indemnity.

Musharraf’s spokesman had repeatedly denied in recent days that he was about to quit. But a lack of apparent support from Pakistan’s army, which he left in November, apparently made other options — including dissolving parliament or even declaring another state of emergency — impossible. AFP