Pervez Musharraf: A president in uniform, 'why bother removing it now?'

dailytimes: Talking to a newspaper in New York, President "General" Pervez Musharraf has said that it was important for him to keep wearing the uniform of a general while conducting the affairs of the state, and that "he had not ruled out keeping it on past 2007". One thought that he had a craving for the presidency, but now it appears that given a choice between being president or army chief he would prefer to be the latter. "We will cross that bridge when we come to it" was a dangerous remark to make.

His reading is that "a president cannot be a president in uniform, and should not be, but the environment of Pakistan dictates that I keep it on until 2007.... the regional and international environment demands that I keep it on. So why should I be bothered to remove it now?" One may therefore ask: what is the environment like? Apart from facing the hazards of terrorism - of which as many people are critical of his performance as are supportive - he has been crowing about having "totally turned Pakistan around" and making key advances in "fostering democracy, including protecting freedom of the press, empowering local government, improving the position of women in society and giving greater representation to minorities". He then went on to claim that Pakistan is much better (in some undefined sense) than many developed countries. This immodesty is unbecoming of any leader. Read more