Musharraf 'to quit army role'
Pervez Musharraf announcing the state of emergency on November 3rd
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Thursday, 15, Nov 2007 04:45
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has named November 31st as the latest final date for him to give up his army uniform.
He had previously said he would give up his post as the Pakistani army's chief of staff after being elected for a second term as president on October 15th.
After having the legitimacy of his candidacy questioned in the country's supreme court Gen Musharraf announced a state of emergency on November 3rd, delaying his resignation.
His commitment to stand down before December remains conditional on the supreme court validating his second term in power, but as he has used the state of emergency to remove judicially independent judges this seems likely.
Meanwhile the current parliament is set to be dissolved at midnight tonight, forcing Gen Musharraf to establish a caretaker government.
He is not expected to bow to the demands of prominent opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who is reportedly calling on other pro-democracy parties to come together to form a unity government.
"We need to see whether we can come up with an interim government of national consensus to whom power can be handed," she told the Associated Press news agency.
"I sense an enormous disquiet, the army feels rudderless, it feels leaderless. It feels its job is to defend the motherland, and instead it finds itself embroiled in a controversial domestic role."
The first deaths caused by unrest in opposition to the state of emergency were reported today. Police said two boys, aged 11 and 12 respectively, were killed in violence in Karachi.
Media restrictions have been lifted, however, with two of the four main news channels now back on the air. BBC and CNN channels are also again available.