Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will quit as army chief if he is re-elected and will be sworn in as a civilian, his lawyer said yesterday, in a move that would end eight years of military rule.
Musharraf, a key US ally who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is due to seek a second five-year mandate as president in a vote by the outgoing parliament that is due before Oct. 15.
"If elected for a second term as president, General Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish charge of [the post of chief of army staff soon after elections and before taking the oath of president for the second term," lawyer Sharfuddin Pirzada told the Supreme Court.
The lawyer was speaking during a hearing into opposition challenges to the Pakistani leader's rule.
If Musharraf wins, he is expected to take the oath within one month of the poll, as the government has said his current term in office ends on Nov. 15.
The move was confirmed by the deputy information minister, Tariq Azeem.
"The time has come for Musharraf to shed his military uniform," he said.
"Legally he has to doff his uniform by Nov. 15. He will have to hang up his uniform before starting his next term, it is a matter of days and not weeks now," he said.
Musharraf has run into a political and legal minefield over his plans to be re-elected as president-in-uniform, with opposition parties calling on him to resign from the army or to quit altogether.
He has been beset by crises since his botched attempt in March to sack Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which sparked nationwide protests and a spate of judicial activism.
Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said a proposed power-sharing deal with Musharraf that has been the subject of months of negotiations depended on whether he would quit his military role.
Bhutto, who has been living in Dubai and London to avoid corruption charges in her homeland, announced on Friday that she intends to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18, with or without a deal.
Pakistani authorities a week ago expelled another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, when he tried to fly home to challenge Musharraf, the man who ousted him eight years ago.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions by the country's leading fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and an association of pro-democracy lawyers.
The appeals argue that Musharraf should not be allowed to hold his military and civilian offices at the same time.
But they also oppose his aim for re-election by the outgoing parliament and provincial assemblies, saying that there should be a general election first to reflect the changing political landscape.
General elections are due by early next year.
Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party rejected Musharraf's pledge to quit as army chief.
"We are challenging Musharraf's eligibility as a candidate for president in uniform. He cannot file his nomination, he is not a valid candidate," senior party member Raja Zafar ul-Haq, a former law minister, said.
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