The Hindu : 'Musharraf gave no assurance to quit as Army chief'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 23, 2002

International

International

'Musharraf gave no assurance to quit as Army chief'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Sept. 22. In what is seen as a "damage limitation" exercise, managers of the Pervez Musharraf regime have been at pains to emphasise that the Pakistan President had not given any assurance to the United States during his recent trip on quitting his job as Chief of the Army Staff (COAS).

The Pakistan Information Minister, Nisar Memon, told correspondents in Lahore on Saturday that Gen. Musharraf had only promised to transfer the "executive powers" to run the Government to the elected Prime Minister.

The controversy over the Pakistan President giving up his position as Army chief was kicked off by Gen. Musharraf himself. At his first engagement in the U.S., in an interactive session with Harvard students, he had said that he would appoint a new Army chief after he stepped down.

It appears that Gen. Musharraf was caught off guard when a student asked him as to when he intended to hang up his uniform. First, he said that "as soon as I step down".

But he did not stop there and told the audience that "it would not be far off"'.

The comment led to a great deal of speculation in the Pakistani media. One view was that Gen. Musharraf might have made the observation to silence his critics who have been questioning his wearing the hat of the Army chief while being President.

Perhaps, he intended to ward off any questions from the American media as his managers had lined up a number of interactive sessions with prestigious U.S. media groups.

That the remark of Gen. Musharraf was no more than an off-the-cuff remark became evident when two days later, the Pakistan Information Minister told journalists in New York that "there was no time frame" fixed for him to quit his job as COAS.

The remark of Gen. Musharraf on his position as Army chief was not the only one to attract wide attention in Pakistan.

Another was his statement in New York while addressing Pakistani Americans that he intended to transfer his powers to dissolve the National Assembly (in his capacity as President) to the National Security Council.

In his interaction with journalists at Lahore, Mr. Memon also denied that there were any plans for postponing the elections.

He said the Government was not favouring any political party and that there was no truth in the charges of the regime favouring the so-called King's party.

The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), a splinter group of the Muslim League led by the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has been nicknamed as the King's party for its alleged proximity to Gen. Musharraf.

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