ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: A group of retired senior officers of the armed forces, including two former air force chiefs, one naval chief, six lieutenant generals and four major generals, urged Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday not only to quit the post of Chief of the Army Staff but to also step down as head of state.

They urged Gen Musharraf to restore the Constitution and revoke the PCO, pointing out that the apex court had asked him to lift emergency. They called upon him to restore the pre-emergency situation, reinstate the pre-PCO judiciary, withdraw media curbs and release political detainees.

A joint statement recalled that Gen Musharraf had publicly admitted in a BBC interview that he committed a constitutionally illegal act on Nov 3, when he imposed ‘martial law’ and issued a PCO in his capacity as the COAS, thus losing all moral and legal authority to retain the positions he holds.

They said it was also bringing the armed forces into disrepute.

The statement bears the signatures of retired Air Marshal Noor Khan, Admiral Fasih Bokhari, Air Chief Marshal Pervez Mehdi Qureshi, Air Vice-Marshal Abbas Mirza, Lt-Gen Talat Masood, Lt-Gen Asad Durrani, Lt-Gen Ali Kuli Khan, Lt-Gen Naeem Akbar, Lt-Gen Jamshed Gulzar Kiani, Lt-Gen Ghulam Mustafa, Maj-Gen Saeed Ahmad Wahla, Maj-Gen Rizwan Qureshi, Maj-Gen Pervez Akmal, Maj-Gen Ziaullah Khan, Air Commodore Aurengzeb Azim, Brig Shaukat Qadir, Col Ahsan Siddiqui, Capt Naeem Sarfaraz, Capt Safir Mallal and Commander Mumtaz Fazal Naqshbandi.