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.
India has moved additional troops along its northern border as it prepares for an extended conflict with China, after several rounds of talks failed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals. China has already placed about 5,000 soldiers and armored vehicles within its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian government official said, asking not to be identified, citing rules. India is adding a similar number of troops as well as artillery guns along the border to fend off the continuing incursions by the Chinese army, the official said. The standoff began on May 5, when troops clashed
CLOSELY TRACKED: A US officer said that the warplanes were watched as they flew from Russia by way of Iran and Syria to Libya and were photographed multiple times The US Africa Command flatly rejected Russian claims that Moscow did not deploy fighter jets to Libya, saying on Friday that the 14 aircraft flown in reflect Russia’s long-term goal to establish a foothold in the region that could threaten NATO allies. US Brigadier General Gregory Hadfield, deputy director of intelligence, said that the US tracked the MiG-29s and Su-24 fighter bombers flown in by Russian military, passing through Iran and Syria before landing at Libya’s al-Jufra air base. The base is the main forward airfield for Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army, which has been waging an
Singapore’s otters, long adored by the city-state’s nature lovers, are popping up in unexpected places during the COVID-19 lockdown, but their antics have angered some and even sparked calls for a cull. With the streets empty, the creatures have been spotted hanging out by a shopping center, scampering through the lobby of a hospital and even feasting on pricey fish stolen from a pond. While many think of tiny Singapore as a densely populated concrete jungle, it is also relatively green for a busy Asian city, and has patches of rainforest, fairly clean waterways and abundant wildlife. There are estimated to be about
Indonesian officials are forcing people who break social distancing rules to recite Koran verses, stay in “haunted” houses and submit to public shaming on social media as the country battles to contain surging novel coronavirus infections. The Southeast Asian archipelago began deploying about 340,000 troops across two dozen cities to oversee enforcement of measures aimed at halting transmission of the disease, such as wearing masks in public. However, provincial leaders are buttressing these efforts with their own zealous campaigns to fight the coronavirus. Police in western Bengkulu Province have assembled a 40-person squad to find lockdown scofflaws and force them to wear
RSS