By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : Beleaguered Pakistani military strongman Pervez Musharraf Tuesday paid farewell visits to the headquarters of the armed forces and met senior military officers, a day before he quits as army chief to become a civilian president.
Musharraf will Wednesday pass the army chief’s baton to his anointed successor Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, currently the army vice chief, and on Thursday begin his second term as president – this time as a civilian.
Uncertainty, meanwhile, continued to prevail in the country’s political landscape with suggestions that the emergency Musharraf proclaimed Nov 3 would be lifted after Thursday’s swearing in ceremony.
This could not be independently verified. Pakistan’s opposition parties, barring those led by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have declared they would boycott the Jan 8 general elections unless the emergency was lifted.
The Pakistani media has welcomed the return from exile of Bhutto and Sharif, saying their presence would lend credibility to the electoral process but asked that the emergency regulations be done away with.
In other developments, Pakistani security forces engaged in a bruising battle with Islamist militants in the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) claimed to have taken control of Najia Top in the Swat Valley after capturing militant bunkers near Saidu Sharif Airport.
On Tuesday, Musharraf first went to the General Headquarters in adjacent Rawalpindi where he met General Tariq Majeed, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Gen. Kiyani.
Musharraf, who has served for 43 years in the Pakistan Army, also visited the navy and air force headquarters in Islamabad and was accorded a farewell guard of honour.
Though army chiefs traditionally also visit garrisons in different cities and attend a lunch with soldiers representing all cadres, Musharraf has limited his visits to the headquarters of the armed forces.
“General Kayani will assume command of the Pakistan Army Wednesday and farewell visits by President Musharraf have started today (Tuesday),” his spokesperson Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi said in a statement.
An official said the defence ministry had issued a formal notification of Musharraf’s retirement from the army.
Musharraf, who has been under tremendous pressure from home and abroad, announced Monday that he would finally quit as army chief ahead of the January polls but said he would continue as president in civvies.
The Supreme Court that was purged of unfriendly judges when Musharraf imposed an emergency Nov 3 has validated his victory in the Oct 6 presidential polls, notification for which was earlier held in abeyance until the Supreme Court gave its verdict in the case.
Musharraf’s announcement about quitting the army chief’s post came a day after his rival and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to the country with a slogan to rid Pakistan of dictatorship.
It was Sharif who had appointed Musharraf army chief Oct 7, 1998, superseding five officers. And it was Musharraf who sacked Sharif in October 1999, put him in jail and a year later sent him into forced exile in Saudi Arabia.
“I am back and will get rid of dictatorship,” Sharif announced Sunday after landing in the country. He denied he came back after a deal with the military dictator. “My return came due to the personal efforts of King Abdullah.”
He also announced that he would boycott the January polls unless the emergency was lifted.
Musharraf, the longest serving army chief after former military dictator Gen. Zia-ul Haq who ruled the country for 11 years, will be sworn-in as president on Thursday.
But his challenges could only be beginning. Political analysts believe that Musharraf as a civilian president could be in trouble as most political parties have already rejected him.
Sharif and Bhutto have said that they would not serve under Musharraf as prime minister if he continued as civilian president. He would, however, remain a figurehead – the supreme commander of the armed forces with powers to sack parliament and appoint the service chiefs.
An editorial in the widely-respected Dawn newspaper on Tuesday said: “With Nawaz Sharif also back home, the presence of two former prime ministers should make the January election credible if both are allowed to take part in it.”
At the same time, it maintained the coming election “will be a farce if the emergency remains in force and the curbs on the media are not withdrawn”.
According to The News, “the triumphant return” Sunday evening of Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif had “changed” the “political goalposts in the country”.
On the military front, it was reported that guerrillas in the Najia Top area had moved to unknown places after abandoning the bunkers they had established on four points near the airport.
Residents of the area said the FM radio station run by guerrilla commander Maulana Fazlullah on Najia Top has been shut down. Najia is the highest peak in the Swat district, a stronghold of Fazlullah.
Fazlullah’s FM was propagating anti-government and pro-Taliban propaganda.