By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Would he lift emergency Thursday or Friday? Speculation swirled as Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf quit as army chief and shed his uniform Wednesday after over four decades in a grand ceremony marked by pomp and emotion too.
As he stepped into civilian life, Musharraf sounded an intensely personal note when he said his heart would always remain with the force.
“Tomorrow, I’ll be not 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 baton to his trusted aide, Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.
He presented the army chief’s ‘stick’ to General Kayani and praised his professionalism. “I know him for the last 20 years when he was a colonel. He is an intelligent and able officer,” said Musharraf, who handed over power under tremendous pressure from the within and outside the country.
After heading the Pakistan Army for nine years, Musharraf Thursday begins a second term as president — this time as a civilian. The 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,” said Musharraf, after a nine-year reign as army chief.
“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 sacking former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man who appointed him the army chief the year before by superseding five generals senior to him.
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.
The other former prime minister who has also come back after eight years abroad, Benazir Bhutto, reached Islamabad Wednesday and is likely to meet the “civilian” president Thursday once he takes oath for another five year term.
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 the farewell meeting with army top brass in which 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.