Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he was reluctant to accede to growing demands to give up his army post as he seeks a new term as head of state, describing his uniform as "part of my skin."
The BBC's Urdu-language service said it asked Musharraf in an interview on Tuesday which office -- the presidency or chief of army staff -- was more important to him and that he acknowledged he would eventually quit the military.
"But when I have to do it, I will have to think a bit about it. I have always said that I will never violate the Constitution," Musharraf was quoted as saying.
Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, denouncing Pakistan's main opposition parties as corrupt and incompetent. He then pushed through a constitutional amendment that exempted him from rules barring the president from holding another office.
Opposition parties insist the exemption expires this year and have used a row over Musharraf's suspension of Pakistan's chief justice to bolster their calls for him to step down.
But Musharraf, who enjoys strong backing from the US for his help against al-Qaeda and who plans to ask lawmakers for a new five-year term this fall, has yet to make his intentions clear.
"The army uniform has become part of my skin. I have been wearing it for 40 to 45 years. It is part of my life. It made me what I am today. Army is my life and blood," Musharraf was quoted as saying.
"I became president because of circumstances," he said.
With parliamentary elections also expected by year-end, Musharraf is urging moderates to join him in countering Islamic extremists who appear to be expanding their influence.
Authorities have been engaged in a four-month confrontation with two radical clerics in Islamabad, whose male and female student followers have launched a campaign of Taliban-style moral policing in the city and kidnapped police officers.
Musharraf defended his decision to negotiate rather than intervene with force, saying radicals at the downtown Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, were armed and that his political opponents would exploit any bloodshed.
"You will say `they got women killed, they got mosques demolished,'" he said. "The opposition also wants me to do this. They will show it on TV. Three women lying dead there in a pool of blood."
Still, he insisted that the standoff, which has prompted authorities to deploy hundreds of armed security forces in capital, "has to be ended."
"Talibanization is not the future of Pakistan. We are an enlightened Islamic state," he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS