Date:15/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/15/stories/2007111561601800.htm

International

May shed uniform by month-end

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he expects to step down as Army chief by the end of November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, warning that the country risked chaos if he gave into Opposition demands to resign.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, the military ruler accused the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, currently under house arrest, of fuelling political turmoil, and rejected the Western pressure to quickly lift the Emergency rule, which he indicated was likely to continue through January elections. “All those who are blunt enough to tell me to my face what the reality is, all of them think, yes, it will lead the country to chaos if I do not handle the political environment now with me remaining as the President,” he said at his Army office near the capital. Gen. Musharraf lashed out at Ms. Bhutto — a political rival but one who shares his pro-Western outlook — for stirring up political tensions since her return to Pakistan from exile was met with a suicide bombing that killed 145 people. — AP