One Dictator Down: Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan resigns! (Don’t ask who will be next!)

After a lengthy address to the nation Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan finally resigned just few minutes back.

This was after after weeks of pressure on him to relinquish power.

More from the CNN report:

Musharraf told the nation in a televised address that he would step down — nearly nine years after he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

It was unclear what the future would hold for Musharraf.

He quit just as the ruling party was taking steps to remove him in what would have been the first impeachment of a president in Pakistan’s history.

Local media reports said Musharraf has been granted “safe passage” out of the country. A spokeswoman for the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, which has taken steps to impeach Musharraf, did not rule out that possibility.

“The decision to give a safe passage to the president is on discretion of the coalition leadership,” Sherry Rehman told reporters Sunday.

Until now, Musharraf, 65, had stubbornly resisted pressure to resign. But his once-considerable power had eroded significantly since parties opposed to his rule swept to victory in parliamentary elections in February.

 
Musharraf spent a considerable chunk of his speech delivering a state-of-the-union style list of Pakistan’s “accomplishments” under his rule. He contrasted it with what he called the deteriorating economic situation now.

“After the elections, the nation wanted solutions from the new government,” he said. “But the politicians could not do so. A personal vendetta was started.”

The ruling coalition ratcheted up its attempts last week to force Musharraf to step down or face impeachment.

A coalition committee spent all last week compiling a list of charges against Musharraf, including corruption, economic mismanagement and violating the constitution.

Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies called on the president to give up power. Parliament was expected to consider an impeachment motion Monday or Tuesday.

“I think the people have mixed reviews to the news,” said Faisal Kapadia, a commodities trader in the city of Karachi. “Leading Pakistan is not an easy task, and anyone doing it comes under a lot of criticism.

“In the start, most Pakistanis were for him,” Kapadia said. “And he still has some supporters — especially because the new government, which promised to do things differently, has failed to do much in the past 100 days in power.”

A dramatic turn of events led Musharraf to power in 1999.

He was serving as military chief when then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif dismissed him, setting off a confrontation between the two men.

As Musharraf was returning from an overseas visit in October 1999, Sharif refused to allow the commercial airliner, with 200 passengers on board, to land.

Within hours, the army had deposed Sharif in a bloodless coup and the plane was allowed to touch down. By then, it had less than 10 minutes of fuel left.

Musharraf assumed control of the government, and a nation on the brink of economic ruins welcomed him with open arms.

“I think at this point, his intentions were good,” said Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a political analyst. “He wanted to serve the country and to be different.”

During his rule, Pakistan attained respectable growth rates and established a generally favorable investment climate.

Along with that came a growing middle class, a more aggressive media, and a more assertive judiciary in this country of 164 million — the second most populous Muslim nation after Indonesia.

“He brought parliamentary reforms. He brought women into the parliament,” said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency.

But Musharraf never lost his military mindset.

“He in a way, always believed in a unity of command, a very centralized command, which means his command, in fact,” said Masood.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Musharraf found himself on the frontlines of America’s ‘war on terror.’

Pakistan had long supported the Taliban as it battled the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

(Library photos are from Colombo Page and Daily News)