Agence France-Presse,
ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf was set to embark on pomp-filled farewell visits to his troops Tuesday, one day before he quits as head of Pakistan's nuclear-armed military and becomes a civilian leader.
The former commando, who grabbed power in a coup in 1999 and then signed up as a US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, will tour various military bases to say his goodbyes over the next two days, officials said.
He is to step down as army chief on Wednesday. On the following day, he will take the oath for a second five-year term as president — but this time without the uniform that he has described as being like his skin.
The move would meet a key demand of the international community outraged by his three-week-old state of emergency, but is unlikely to placate opposition leaders at home who are threatening to boycott elections set for January 8.
“General Musharraf will make a series of farewell visits to various military headquarters on Tuesday and Wednesday,” presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi told AFP.
He is on Tuesday to visit the headquarters of the joint services, the navy and the air force, which are spread out between the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring garrison city of Rawalpindi, Qureshi said.
Musharraf will on Wednesday go to the army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi to hand over his position as chief of army staff to his heir apparent, General Ashfaq Kiyani, the spokesman added.
Officials said Musharraf would receive a guard of honour during the handover ceremony to Kiyani, the former head of Pakistan's premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.
Musharraf's future after he hangs up his khakis is far from certain, with Pakistan in the midst of one of the most serious political crises since its formation 60 years ago.
Last week a purged Supreme Court rubber-stamped Musharraf's victory in an October presidential election, swatting away legal challenges arguing that as a serving officer, he was ineligible to stand.
He will remain supreme commander of the armed forces, with the power to sack civilian governments, but he faces fierce opposition that could leave him saddled with a hostile parliament that smells blood.
His arch-foe Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister whom he ousted eight years ago, returned home from exile on Sunday vowing to end “dictatorship” in Pakistan and saying he would never serve in government under him.
Musharraf was appointed as chief of Pakistan's 500,000-strong army by Sharif himself in 1998.
Another ex-prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, returned home last month and is expected to hold talks with Sharif on a joint strategy for general elections.
Sharif and Bhutto both filed their nomination papers on Monday.
As Pakistan's second-longest serving army chief after military dictator Zia-ul-Haq, who died in a plane crash in 1988, Musharraf also faces a rising wave of Islamic militant bloodshed.
Pakistani troops on Monday intensified an offensive against pro-Taliban militants who have seized much of the northwestern Swat valley, killing 20 including three commanders, the army said.
The country has also suffered a record number of suicide attacks in 2007, including a double bombing at Bhutto's homecoming parade in Karachi on October 18 that killed 139 people and wounded hundreds.
Musharraf cited militancy and an unruly judiciary as his reasons for imposing emergency rule, although critics say his motive was to purge the Supreme Court of hostile judges who could have overruled his election.
The United States said Monday that Musharraf had taken “some encouraging steps” toward returning to constitutional rule — notably pledging to quit the army — but must lift the state of emergency.
“Pakistan won't be back on the right road until it is back on the road of constitutional democratic rule,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked about Musharraf's plan to quit as army chief.
