Isolated looking Musharraf might quit: Aussie paper

Sydney, Mar 26 : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who seemed isolated and withdrawn while administering oath to new Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, might resign if he felt alone at his Presidency, said an article published in The Australian.

It said that after a day when deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry walked free after more than four months under house arrest, and parliament reverberated to chants of "Go, Musharraf go", officials within the Presidency said "he may resign if he is left alone".

The Aussie paper cited various reasons why Musharraf might feel alone after yesterday's transition of power. For instance, it recalled that there is no love lost between Musharraf and Gillani as the new premier had served five years of his 10-year prison sentence, which was imposed by Musharraf over trumped up corruption charges.

Both PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif who was deposed by the then Musharraf, boycotted Gillani's swearing-in ceremony because of Musharraf's presence.

The political threat to Musharraf was behind the unannounced arrival in Islamabad of the Bush administration's two top policy chiefs on Pakistan, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher. Negroponte's past history of dealing with Latin American dictators who had passed their use-by date - tapping them on the shoulder and telling them their time was up - fuelled intense speculation that he was flying in to tell Musharraf the time had come to go.

During their meetings with Negroponte and Boucher, both Sharif and Zardari indicated that the new democratic coalition intends following a very different policy from Musharraf on the war against terror and dealing with jihadi militants, said the paper.

ANI