Time to step down

As the ruling coalition has driven him to a tight spot and there is not much he can do about to get out of it, the best option for General Musharraf is to step down before being impeached. This is what his political allies are counselling. Ch Shujaat Hussain who dashed to Islamabad on Saturday and met him for the second time in a week suggested to him to make an honourable exit before the start of impeachment proceedings, while making it clear to him that if he ever tried to dissolve the assemblies he would not be backed by the PML-Q. The comment came on the heels of a statement by one-time Musharraf apologist Sheikh Rashid Ahmad that it would be better for him to “say goodbye” than invoke Article 58 (2)b for which the army would not support him. A Daily Telegraph report has meanwhile quoted an unidentified senior Pakistani official as saying that the army wanted Musharraf “to be spared the humiliation of impeachment”. It indicated that the COAS would tell the President to resign within a week.