September 19, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 06, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The coalition government on Tuesday claimed credit for President Pervez Musharraf’s decision to hang up his uniform after his re-election as the president, while the opposition termed the government lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada’s statement in the Supreme Court a hidden threat to the court that Gen Musharraf might not quit the army post if he was not elected the president.

President Musharraf presided over a meeting at his camp office on Tuesday morning, which was attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani.

Sources said the meeting expressed satisfaction over the president’s decision and gave its credit to the coalition parties which had provided complete support to the president on the issue.

The sources said that President Musharraf had taken the top PML leaders and the coalition parties’ leaders into confidence on the move and the measures the government was likely to take in the next few days.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said after the meeting that President Musharraf’s decision to take oath as a civilian head of state would strengthen democracy and ensure continuity and consistency of policies.

Party secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who broke the news to a foreign agency on Monday that Gen Musharraf had made up his mind to quit the army before Nov 15, said: “This decision will push forward the process of democratic dialogue”.

Information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told a news conference later that the process of army’s return to barracks would start immediately after President Musharraf took oath as a civilian president.

The presidential elections, he said, would be free and fair and Gen Musharraf, being a candidate of coalition parties having a majority in parliament, would win.

He said he was thankful to the PML and its allied parties for supporting the democratic process in the country which, he said, made the president’s statement on the uniform issue possible.

He also praised the opposition parties for helping the democratic process by keeping the dialogue process with the government intact, despite having differences of opinion.

PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said: “We still believe that Gen Musharraf is neither eligible to contest the presidential election in uniform nor he is qualified to become the president even after he doffed his uniform.”

He said there was a ‘clear threat’ in the statement submitted to the apex court on Tuesday that Gen Musharraf might not quit the post of army chief if he was not re-elected.

MMA Deputy Secretary-General Liaquat Baloch said that by filing the statement in the court, Gen Musharraf had admitted that he was not eligible to become a candidate for the presidential election and that he was holding the office of the COAS ‘illegally and without lawful authority’.

MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said: “This statement carries a veiled threat to the Supreme Court that his (Gen Musharraf’s) doffing the uniform depended on his re-election as the president, meaning that if he is not allowed to contest the election he may continue as the army chief”.

He said the APDM’s threat to quit assemblies if Gen Musharraf contested the presidential election, was part of a well-thought-out strategy, and there were other options as well.

Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed, a former chief justice of the Sindh High Court, said that although this was a positive development, it was unclear whether Gen Musharraf would continue as the COAS if he was not elected, and how would he be eligible to contest the presidential election when under Article 63 of the Constitution he was required to wait for two years after his retirement from government service.