Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Pakistan's president may give up his military post

Musharraf, trying to stay in power, negotiates with an exiled official.

By GRIFF WITTE, Washington Post
Published August 30, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto were on the verge Wednesday night of forming an improbable alliance that would involve him stepping down from the army but continuing as president and her returning to Pakistan after eight years of exile to try to win back her old job, officials on both sides said.

"We're very close to an agreement," Bhutto said in an interview Wednesday night from London. While Bhutto said that one or two issues need to be worked out, the question of whether Musharraf would stay in uniform had been resolved.

"I don't see that as a stumbling block," she said. "Gen. Musharraf understands that the people of Pakistan want him to take the uniform off. And he wants to make the people happy."

In Islamabad, a top aide to Musharraf confirmed that the question of whether the general would step down from the army had been settled and that he would be making an announcement soon.

"It's solved," said Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. Musharraf, a strong U.S. ally, had long resisted resigning from a military he has served his entire adult life. He had also rejected the idea of Bhutto or former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returning to Pakistan ahead of elections slated for this year or early 2008. The three are bitter rivals.

But with Musharraf's popularity plummeting and a hostile Supreme Court likely to try to block his plans for winning a new term in office, analysts say his options are few. Musharraf's army post is considered his main source of power.

A power-sharing agreement with Bhutto could help Musharraf win re-election. In Pakistan, the Parliament and provincial assemblies elect the president.

Bhutto, who leads the center-left Pakistan People's Party, has insisted that Musharraf consent to giving up his uniform before she signs any agreement that would allow him five more years as president. She has also demanded an end to the two-term limit for prime ministers. She served in the office twice in the 1980s and 1990s and would like to return from exile to become prime minister again.

Sharif, however, has ruled out any compromise with Musharraf and is expected to return to Pakistan in early September now that the Supreme Court has decided he cannot be legally exiled. Sharif, who leads a center-right party, was prime minister until Musharraf ousted him in a military coup in 1999. He left the country, choosing exile over a life sentence imposed on him after Musharraf took over.

[Last modified August 30, 2007, 02:07:48]