Media Reports: Musharraf Will Step Down "Within Days"

Musharraf’s days as president may be numbered…

A woman holds an banner protesting against Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf during a rally in Islamabad February 23, 2008. (Reuters)

Pakistani pro-US President Pervez Musharraf is likely to step down within days according to several media reports.
The Telegraph is reporting:

Pervez Musharraf is considering stepping down as president of Pakistan rather than waiting to be forced out by his victorious opponents, aides have told The Sunday Telegraph.

One close confidante said that the president believed he had run out of options after three of the main parties who triumphed in last week’s poll announced they would form a coalition government together, and also pledged to reinstate the country’s chief justice and 60 other judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in November.

“He has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself,” a close friend said. “I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high.”

Mr Musharraf, who stepped down as head of the army late last year, had called for a harmonious coalition after the defeat of his party – which won just 38 out of 272 national assembly seats in last Sunday’s elections – but his political rivals have demanded he go.

Officials said he had considered resigning immediately after the election results were known, but had been persuaded by party loyalists that his sudden departure could precipitate a crisis.

Earlier today the a PPP opposition leader Amin Fahim indicated that the new government would not seek President Pervez Musharraf’s immediate impeachment- Daily Times. The opposition had called for him to resign hours after their election victory.

LGF Quick Links-Arrakis reported from the Hindu News on Musharraf’s intentions:

He may have made many mistakes, but he genuinely tried to build the country and he doesn’t want to destroy it just for the sake of his personal office,” an unnamed official close to the President told the British newspaper.

The Pakistani opposition already announced that they want to hold talks with terrorists.

UPDATE: Astute Bloggers reported that the PPP has already surrendered to the Islamists in southwestern Pakistan where the Taliban is thought to be holed up.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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