By DPA
Islamabad : Embattled Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf began farewell visits to the country’s military headquarters Tuesday, a day before he plans to shed his army uniform under opposition demand and become a civilian leader, his spokesman said.
“General (Ashfaq Pervez) Kayani will assume command of the Pakistan Army Wednesday and farewell visits by President General Musharraf have started today (Tuesday),” spokesman Rashid Qureshi said in a statement.
Musharraf, who was commissioned into the Pakistan Army in 1964, visited the army’s headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the naval headquarters in Islamabad.
The 64-year-old former commando, who ousted a democratically elected government in a bloodless military coup in 1999 and won a second term in a disputed presidential vote Oct 6, will be sworn in again Thursday but without the uniform, which he recently called his “second skin.” The move could also negatively affect the general’s political backers from the Pakistan Muslim League’s Quaid faction.
The end of the absolute power he has enjoyed for the past eight years comes as the military ruler remains embattled by low public approval ratings, political turmoil after he imposed emergency rule in early November, and rising Islamic militancy, particularly in the country’s north-west region near the Afghan border.
By using powers attained under emergency rule, Musharraf stacked the Supreme Court with sympathetic judges, who validated his election victory. Many analysts believe this may delay the immediate political demise he was rapidly heading towards, but would not lessen his difficulties.
Musharraf tried to reach out to liberal opposition leader Benazir Bhutto for much needed support, allowing her to return home from self-exile, but she has publicly rejected any power-sharing deal with him after he decreed the state of emergency, and demanded he resign as president.
His old rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom he ousted in 1999 and forced into exile for seven years, returned home from Saudi Arabia Sunday to challenge what he calls “Musharraf’s dictatorship.”
“I will not become prime minister if Musharraf is president,” he told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore as he filed nomination papers for the Jan 8 parliamentary elections that Musharraf’s government announced to fend off mounting international pressure to return to democracy.
As daily demonstrations against Musharraf enter their fourth week across the country, the Pakistan Army launched a major offensive over the weekend against thousands of armed supporters of radical Muslim cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who is fighting to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in the Swat Valley in the northwest region.
The increasing attacks by radicals seem to put to test Musharraf’s argument that emergency rule would strengthen his hand against extremists and pro-Taliban groups.