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Pakistan’s civilian president
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf took oath as head of state for five more years, this time as a civilian, vowing to hold parliamentary elections in January come what may.
The country’s opposition boycotted the official ceremony where Musharraf, who stepped down as the army chief after ruling the country in uniform for eight years following intense Western pressure.
As Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Doggar administered the oath at the presidency’s Darbar Hall, Musharraf, 64, said: “It’s an emotional and nostalgic stage for me... I have quit from the army after almost half a century of association.”
He said Pakistan was passing through the third phase of the transition towards democracy. “There is great turbulence. I have full conviction that we will come out of this very soon.”
In his new position too Musharraf retains enormous power - to dissolve parliament and also appoint the military services chiefs as well as the chairman of the National Security Council.
Caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro, members of his cabinet, military services chiefs, Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and foreign envoys and representatives from the world of showbiz were present at the ceremony.
Despite the state of emergency, which he imposed as army chief by suspending the constitution, an action that has sparked widespread condemnation, Musharraf took oath under the 1973 constitution.The audience cheered him and clapped as he signed the official document after taking oath.
The ceremony was conducted with the same pomp seen a day earlier when Musharraf bid farewell to the army, handing over the chief’s traditional baton to his chosen successor, General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani.
In his speech, Musharraf charged elements within the judiciary under Iftikhar Chaudhry, the sacked chief justice of the Supreme Court, with trying “to derail the third stage of democratic transition”.
General elections would go ahead as scheduled Jan 8, he said, noting the return of exiled opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to the country is good for political reconciliation.
But leading political parties rejected Musharraf’s swearing in as civilian president, saying his future will be determined by a new parliament that comes up after the January polls.
The new parliament will determine his future, he will have to take confidence of the new parliament.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League dismissed the swearing in as illegal and unconstitutional.They did not accept him as constitutional president.His resignation as army chief fulfilled a demand by the opposition and other countries.
In a related development, Sharif told that he had no power-sharing deal with Musharraf and stressed that the elections will lack any credibility unless the sacked Supreme Court judges were reinstated.
The president also restated his commitment to the fight against terrorism.
“We have to defeat terrorism. There is no choice,” said Musharraf, who became a key US ally in the region after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sep 11, 2001.
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