Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf resigns

AFP via translation | August 18, 2008

[HAL9000]

via translation

ALERT - The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns

ISLAMABAD - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan announced his resignation Monday, the eve of an impeachment procedure announced by his government.

[HAL9000]

BBC News - Pakistan's Musharraf will resign

[Justice]

Who will take over and control Pakistan’s nukes?

[HAL9000]

AP NewsAlert

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he is resigning

[Gamecock]

Was he already in exile when he resigned?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know.

[HAL9000]

http://www.geo.tv/8-18-2008/22968.htm

Musharraf announces resignation

Updated at: 1405 PST, Monday, August 18, 2008

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf announced in a televised address to the nation Monday that he had decided to resign after nine years in power to avoid the threat of impeachment.

"After viewing the situation and consulting legal advisers and political allies, with their advice I have decided to resign," a grim-faced Musharraf said, backed by Pakistani flags and a portrait of the country's founder.

"I leave my future in the hands of people."

Musharraf made the shock announcement after denying that any of the impeachment charges against him could stand and launching into a lengthy defence of his time in power.

"Not a single charge in the impeachment can stand against me," Musharraf said. "No charge can be proved against me because I never did anything for myself, it was all for Pakistan."

He said that there was now law and order in the country, that human rights and democracy had been improved and that Pakistan was now an crucial country internationally.

"On the map of the world, Pakistan is now an important country, by the grace of Allah," he said.

[WoofDog123]

hopefully freepers who advocated this man’s removal will be happy with the eventually replacement situation and its impact on US interests. I do not expect that this will be the case, however.

I believe this dictator never had sufficient political power and capital to simply purge the ISI. There were multiple enacted attempts to kill him that were made public in the last 7 years alone - it isn’t like he didn’t have a vested interest in controlling radical elements in and out of his government. If Freepers are thinking a more conventional replacement will be more effective, I wish them luck.

[Shelayne]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Vanders9]

Dictators (in the sense of absolutist despots) rarely resign from office.

[HAL9000]

I expect that the U.S. will have some input into the choice of his successor.

[SolidWood]

I HOPE at least. The only damn I give about Pakistan are it’s nukes.

[Westbrook]

The world is becoming more unstable and dangerous by the minute.

[HAL9000]

Times of India - Next Pak President may be a woman: PPP

[John Valentine]

I expect that the U.S. will have some input into the choice of his successor.

Given the anti-American bent of those who are coming into power, I doubt we'll have much input or even influence.

Moreover, this result is going to embolden the Islamists that infest the ISI.

You can expect less, not more, effort to control the lunatics roaming around in the Tribal Areas. You might even expect that they will be surreptitiously funded by the ISI.

Ditto for Kashmir.

These are likely to be troubled times for the Subcontinent.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

This can’t be good.

[HAL9000]

That’s one possible outcome, but we’ve been preparing for this contingency for some time, and we were instrumental in organizing their elections. We still have some leverage there.

[djf]

Correct. More of the slide into Islamic fundamentalism.
Which has basically nullified and destroyed any concept of Mid-East culture and influence.

But there is a country there that won’t take this lying down.
And they have the means and discipline and will, and they are already getting a bit fed up.

India will, if it decides to and believes it has to do it to survive, slaughter them unmercifully. Virgins or not.

[HAL9000]

One other note - General Kayani remains in charge of the Army. He is arguably more important to our national interests than Musharraf. If Kayani goes, that would be more alarming.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

sadly, who ever wants to. we are living in interesting times. hope the next president has some packets of no-doz handy.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Maybe him, Noriega, and jimmy carter can get a ‘reality show of former leaders’ gig going:

(KITCHEN - MORNING)
CARTER: “Who left the milk carton open?”
NORIEGA: “F off, peanut head.” (grabs testicles in a menacing way).
MUSHARAFF (on phone): “Tell Khan to finish the deal with Eritrea now. This exile deal in Frisco is a joke and I’m low on fundage.”
(Doorbell rings, door opens. In walks John Edwards with oversized Nike bag slung on shoulder.)
EDWARDS: “Guess who?”
(Jesse Jackson walks out of hall bath)
JACKSON: “Hey, cool! High-five my white brother!”

[mkjessup]

Now THAT is funny!!!!

[JDoutrider]

Index marker

[night reader]

These are likely to be troubled times for the Subcontinent.

And the world!!!

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I wouldn't count on it, not in Pakistan. At best, we'll end up with another government ruled by islamists. At worst, Al Qaeda will take over.

I wonder if Bush will regret telling Musharref that if he's going to be president of Pakistan, then he needed to take off that uniform?

Like another poster said, better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

[dennisw]

Musharraf spent 25 years consolidating power
Whoever replaces him will be much weaker and will have even less control over Jihadists and extremists

Trouble ahead

[smedley64]

Is Obama eligible to run in Pakistan?

Maybe they need more "hope" and "change" than we do, and he can appease America as the leader of Pakistan.

[autumnraine]

That’s what I’m afraid of. With all that is going on with Iran and Russia, this could get ugly if the right one doesn’t replace him.

[autumnraine]

So it isn’t just me being a weiny? Because the world hasn’t been a peaceful, fun loving place. But it just seems in the past year or so, it’s gotten very volatile.

[Westbrook]

> So it isn’t just me being a weiny?

Nope.

The forces of darkness are on the move.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
~ Ephesians 6:12

[SueRae]

There is cause for worry. Musharraf, faults and all, was still an ally. Who knows if his successor will be. Troubled times indeed (you have a gift for understatement).

[xzins]

Nukes....this is scary.

[ichabod1]

Hey, yeah, and the pilot will be a “Waiting for Godot” style bit about Bin Ladin being expected to show up for the show, and everybody wonderign whether he will make it or not.

[Wiz]

ping

[wolfcreek]

[RetiredArmy]

Does this mean Osama bin Hiddin is going to be the president?

[clee1]

THAT’s the question.

One of the nutcases is going to get a bomb, and an American city will disappear.

Prayers up.

[Alia]

Thank you for your sound words this morning - I agree.

Further, India has interests in "re"acquiring Kashmir". Kashmir is disputed territory now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China. Musharraf, in addition to allying with the US throughout the War on Terror, has fought hard to retain Kashmir as a Pakistani interest. I suspect his "replacement" will give Kashmir to the PRC and India.

[Dinah Lord]

Pakistan is slipping away.

[Dinah Lord]

Pakistan is slipping away.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Prayers for Pakistan in its time of peril and uncertainty.
May God guide them to walk in His light.

[evad]

Is Obama eligible to run in Pakistan?

Not since he threatened to bomb them.

[reagan_fanatic]

It has been for some time. At some point in the (near) future, Pakistan will become an islamic fundamentalist state, and radical islam will have its nukes.

[JasonC]

The largest party in parliament is the PPP, Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, aka the socialist left. The current leader is her husband. Their coalition partner is the party of Nawaz Sharif, the previous president that Musharraf desposed in his coup. He heads one wing of the Islamic party. I'd say his wing is allied to the business class, is corrupt, and in the past worked with the ISI (the intelligence agency), and is allied to Saudi Arabia. The true Islamic nutjobs are off in the northern areas and are deeply unpopular with the PPP. Sharif would try to get along with them, but isn't one of them. I hope that helps.

[JasonC]

He was a nationalist general trying to save his country, and a patriot. He was a dictator, he did not rule as a tyrant but as a statesmen. Pakistan should be careful what it wishes for...

[JasonC]

I don't think the Islamic nutjobs are terribly popular with the people of Pakistan, who resoundingly voted for the PPP, the party whose leader those nutjobs assassinated 7 months ago. The Islamicists aren't going to win an election in Pakistan. The only worries are (1) they might use force not elections, though the army could stop them and has in the past, and (2) some are in the intelligence apparatus (the ISI), setting policy and acting covertly without asking anyone's permission.

[Southack]

Unlike in Russia, where Putin’s act of “stepping down” was one in which he still maintained control, and unlike in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe stayed in Office after losing an election, Musharaff is showing the world that Pakistan is returning to democracy instead of fleeing from it.

[shadowgovernment]

an unstable world as America played limited war after
invasion of Afgan and Iraq ..Bush never followed up on his big words and allowed Syria and Iran to continue terror.
1. Lebanon and defeat of Israel army there
2. taking of British seamen
3. Shiite gangs given IED’s
4. Russia sees the weakness and acts
5. we now have Afgan heating up, Iran still intact, a
report of a major offensive by Shiites trained in Iran
heating up Iraq
6. The world is moving towards a major confrontation as
India looks at an unstable Pakistan, Russia tests USA
and the EU/Nato..
7. Looks like a plan is moving ahead very rapidly and we
had better stop it now before it leads to WWIII

[G8 Diplomat]

Pakistan ۋﮧ۱م

FReepmail if you want on or off

[G8 Diplomat]

So who’ll replace him, Mullah Omar??

This guy is like the Pakistani Nixon...threatened to be impeached, so he resigned. And Pakistan is not a country where you want to leave a power vacuum.