- Reports
- February 25, 2008
- 4 minutes read
Rumors on Musharraf decision of denouncing Presidency Pakistan after elections
One close confidante told the Sunday Telegraph that Pervez Musharraf, the current Pakistani president, is considering stepping down as president of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents.
Officials said he had considered resigning immediately after the election results were known. The close confidante added that Musharaf believed he had run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week”s poll announced they would form a coalition government together.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, senior aides said that Musharraf wants to avoid a power struggle with the newly elected parliament, who would govern with 211 MPs, in which his opponents will be close to the two-thirds majority needed to impeach him and remove him from office.
Abdul-Ghaffar Aziz, foreign relations spokesman of the Islamic group in Pakistan, stated that President Pervez Musharraf still wants to keep his position as the President of Pakistan and the one who controls all other political parties despite the fact that all Pakistani people declared their complete rejection of Musharraf during the last elections.
It is noteworthy that Musharraf”s popular support drained away over the past year as he interfered with the independence of the courts, a decree which arouse anger all around Pakistan and made people continuously demand the complete independence of courts and the return of judges excluded at time of Musharraf’s decree.
Musharraf also imposed a state of emergency, restricted the media and postponed elections.
Abdul-Ghaffar Aziz added in his statement to Ikhwanweb that Musharraf is not alone in his attempts to keep the presidency seat. As the US administration, along with other European embassies, are even more active, continuously organizing meetings with political Pakistani parties and representatives to convince them that Musharraf should stay in power.
He said that there are some attemps to exclude certain political parties, as Nawaz Sherif’s party, out of the central government. Adding that the decision to exclude some parties and include others in the coming government is according to the amount of support they give to Musharraf.
The Pakistani People’s Party(PPP), one of the coalition of anti-Musharraf parties, stated recently in a published article that any deal with Musharraf would have dented the party”s public support and it was better to try to govern with the help of the other main parties.
Jamil Soomro, a PPP spokesman, said “He has betrayed everyone since the very outset and we have no guarantee that he would not betray us once he stabilised his position.”*
Khwaja Asif, senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, said to The Telegraph newspapers talking about President Musharraf, “I think his game is over but if he was able to survive for any reason, he would be like a dead fish, sitting and rotting the presidency.”
Abdul-Ghaffar Aziz of the Islamic group confirmed that President Musharraf can not survive in his position for a long time after the clear declare of the Pakistani people in the last elections who rejected him as a President.