100 ex-leaders of military want Musharraf out
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - About 100 retired senior military officers issued a letter yesterday bluntly urging President Pervez Musharraf to resign.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - About 100 retired senior military officers issued a letter yesterday bluntly urging President Pervez Musharraf to resign.
The demand is the latest sign that Musharraf, who is traveling in Europe to shore up his battered image, faces even stronger challenges to his rule. Musharraf stepped down as army chief last month but relies on the military as a pillar of support.
The retired officers - including two dozen army generals, three air force air marshals, and eight naval admirals - signed the letter after a meeting at a hotel adjacent to the general headquarters of the Pakistan armed forces in nearby Rawalpindi.
The letter said the officers voiced "great concern and anguish" during discussions about the "prevailing conditions" in the country.
Some of the officers had signed statements against Musharraf before, but never in such numbers.
The group, calling itself the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen's Society, said Musharraf should resign as president "in the supreme national interest."
The group's leader, retired Lt. Gen. Faiz Ali Chishti, said in a phone interview that the officers believe they represent most Pakistanis.
"This is what the nation wants," he said.
Musharraf is to travel from France to Switzerland today, where he will attend sessions of the World Economic Forum at the Davos alpine resort and meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Speaking to reporters as she flew to Europe, Rice said the Bush administration would fight congressional efforts to curb billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Pakistan, the Associated Press reported.
But she warned that Musharraf must promote democracy and ensure that the parliamentary elections set for next month are free and fair.
Uncertainty has enveloped Pakistan since the Dec. 27 slaying of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister. Suicide bombings have hit all three major cities of Pakistan.
Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, a retired army chief, predicted that Musharraf would ignore the officers' letter.
But Aslam Beg, who said he did not sign the letter, although his name appeared on a printed copy, said Musharraf would have difficulty hanging on to the power he has held since a 1999 bloodless coup.
"It is time for Gen. Musharraf to quit," Aslam Beg said. "There is no doubt about it. He could have done it with grace. But now his options are very limited."
The letter emerged as Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, which deals with the Middle East, met Pakistan's new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, in Rawalpindi.
The Bush administration is concerned about growing Taliban control of areas along Pakistan's Afghan border.
