February 25, 2008	Monday	Safar 17, 1429

WASHINGTON, Feb 24: A top US senator on Sunday said it would be “probably” a good idea for President Pervez Musharraf to look for a “graceful exit” instead of being forced out of power in the aftermath of the elections in Pakistan.

“President Musharraf deserves a graceful exit,” chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told ABC News. In the same interview, he also noted that the Pakistani constitution offers the option of a graceful exit to the president.

Mr Biden, who along with Senators John Kerry and Chuck Hagel were in Pakistan during the polls, brushed aside the notion that the defeat of President Musharraf and his party meant a setback to US operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“Probably” it would be a good idea for Mr Musharraf to prepare for an exit strategy, said Mr Biden when asked to comment on the president’s political future.

“I firmly believe if they (opposition parties) do not focus on old grudges – and there’s plenty in Pakistan – and give him a graceful way to move, that will be exactly what the Telegraph of London reported, apparently,” Mr Biden said in reference to a report in the newspaper that said Mr Musharraf had “already started discussing the exit strategy for himself”. President Musharraf, through his spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, has, however, said that he has no such plan.