Musharraf to quit army post after election: lawyer

FE Team | Published: September 19, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Pervez Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Sept 18 (AFP): Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf will resign as army chief after securing a second term as president, his chief lawyer told the Supreme Court here Tuesday.
The lawyer, a long-term aide to Musharraf, said the president would give up the role before he takes the oath of office.
The announcement was read out by the lawyer, Sharfuddin Pirzada, during a court hearing into opposition challenges to Musharraf's plans for re-election in uniform.
Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is due to seek a another five-year term as president in a vote by the outgoing parliament that is due before October 15.
"If elected for a second term as president, Musharraf shall relinquish charge of (the post of) chief of army staff soon after elections and before taking the oath of president for the second term," he said in the statement.
The move was confirmed by the deputy information minister, Tariq Azeem.
"The time has come for Musharraf to shed his military uniform," he told AFP. "He will have to hang up his uniform before starting his next term."
Musharraf has been embroiled in a political and legal minefield over his plans to be re-elected as president-in-uniform, with opposition parties calling on him to resign from the army.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said a proposed power- sharing deal with Musharraf that has been the subject of months of negotiations depended on whether he would quit his military role.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions by the country's leading fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, cricketer-turned- politician Imran Khan and an association of pro-democracy lawyers.
They all argue that Musharraf should not be allowed to hold his military and civilian offices at the same time.