Posted on 08/18/2008 1:12:57 AM PDT by 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.
Who will take over and control Pakistan’s nukes?
AP NewsAlert
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he is resigning
Was he already in exile when he resigned?
Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know.
Musharraf announces resignationUpdated 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.
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.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Dictators (in the sense of absolutist despots) rarely resign from office.
I expect that the U.S. will have some input into the choice of his successor.
I HOPE at least. The only damn I give about Pakistan are it’s nukes.
The world is becoming more unstable and dangerous by the minute.
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.
This can’t be good.
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.
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.
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.
sadly, who ever wants to. we are living in interesting times. hope the next president has some packets of no-doz handy.
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