By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Bowing to intense international and domestic pressure, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf finally stepped down as the army chief Wednesday amid speculation that he would lift the emergency after beginning a second term – in civvies – Thursday.
Musharraf handed over the army’s reins to his chosen successor Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, even as the military claimed to have regained control over the restive Swat Valley in the northwest. It said up to 220 pro-Taliban militants had been killed since late October.
In other developments, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who returned home last month after eight years in exile, arrived in Islamabad Wednesday and is likely to meet the “civilian” president Thursday after he takes oath.
And, British High Commissioner to Pakistan Robert Brinkley Wednesday met another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, at his residence in Lahore and told him that Britain had for long been calling for a level-playing field for the January 8 general elections.
As he shed his uniform after over four decades in a grand ceremony marked by pomp and emotion and stepped into civilian life, Musharraf sounded an intensely personal note, saying his heart would always remain with the army.
“Tomorrow, I’ll not be in uniform but my heart will remain with the army,” Musharraf said in an emotional speech at the grand ceremony in the garrison town Rawalpindi while handing over the army chief’s baton to his successor Kayani.
He praised Kayani for his professionalism. “I know him for the last 20 years when he was a colonel. He is an intelligent and able officer,” Musharraf said.
After heading the Pakistan Army for nine years, Musharraf Thursday begins his second term as president. Newly appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar will administer the oath of office at the presidency.
“I regret to quit the army, but everyone has to go, everyone will go,” Musharraf said in his address at the function attended by only a few civilians, including caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro, his cabinet colleagues and some senior members of the bureaucracy.
“After remaining in uniform for 46 years, I am saying goodbye to this army. This army is my life, this army is my passion. I have loved this army,” Musharraf said.
“Whatever I am today is because of this army, and whatever I learnt is from this army,” Musharraf said, pointing out that he had fought two wars against India.
The 64-year-old, who has steered Pakistan’s political and military fortunes through turbulent times, took over power in October 1999 by ousting elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man who appointed him the army chief the year before by superseding five generals.
The buzz is that he will lift emergency either on Thursday evening or Friday, the condition set by Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and has returned home from exile in Saudi Arabia, to contest the Jan 8 polls.
At his meeting with Sharif, British High Commissioner Brinkley told him that Britain was encouraged by Musharraf’s step of quitting as army chief.
A statement from the British High Commission said the envoy welcomed the setting of a date and timetable for the elections, and President Musharraf’s assurance to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week that he hoped to lift the state of emergency beforehand.
A PML-N leader said Sharif made it clear to the British envoy that the party will not participate in the Jan 8 polls if emergency was not lifted by Friday.
Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum told reporters that Musharraf would lift emergency “very soon” but did not give any timeframe.
According to Musharraf, the army today faced several challenges besides the routine threats at borders: “Army fights against enemy, against floods, against terrorism and stands for the country in any difficulty.”
He later chaired a farewell meeting with army top brass, at which the generals praised his services to the army and the country.
By shedding his uniform that he has often referred to as his “second skin”, Musharraf fulfils one of the main demands of his political rivals and Western allies.
He will retain critical powers under the emergency rule he imposed Nov 3. He imposed the emergency in his capacity of army chief but transferred those powers to the presidency.
Musharraf joined the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961 and was commissioned in an elite Artillery Regiment in 1964. The general saw action as a young officer in the 1965 war with India in the Khem Karan, Lahore and Sialkot sectors with a self-propelled artillery regiment. He also fought in the 1971 war as company commander in a commando battalion.
Musharraf was also instrumental in building a peace process with India.
On the military front, chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said:”The militants have vacated the Swat area and are now running away towards the western mountains.”
“Since military operations started in late October, the military has killed between 215 and 220 militants,” he added.
The offensive began when the government sent additional troops to the scenic valley, a four hours’ drive from the capital, to rein in around 5,000 armed followers of radical Muslim cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who is fighting to impose strict Islamic law.
Fazlullah’s armed followers had captured dozens of villages and at least three main towns in Swat, including a police station in Matta, renaming it the “Taliban Police Station.”
Musharraf had justified the emergency he proclaimed Nov 3 by citing the rise of insurgency.