“Somebody’s silence” made Musharraf resign from presidency: Shujaat Hussain

ISLAMABAD - Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf heard somebody’s “silence,” which made him step down from the presidency, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the former commando’s top political backer at the time, has revealed.

During an interview with the Dawn, the PML-Q president gave some insight into the last days of Pakistan’s fourth military ruler, describing how Musharraf, who often boasted to fight out any challenges rather than run away, seemed unnerved by an apparent lack of army support, and thus opted to resign from the presidency in August 2008 instead of facing a threatened impeachment by the parliament.

Although Shujaat declined to name the person whose silence was perceived to have done the trick, he seemed to be referring to the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, known to be man of few words.

The PML-Q chief said he asked Musharraf to get ready to face the impeachment process moved by the PPP and the PML-N.

But Musharraf, who had already given up as Army chief after getting himself re-elected as president, was reluctant, though he claimed to enjoy military support.

“The army is with me, but… ,” Shujaat quoted Musharraf as telling him, and citing the commanders of the force as all being his juniors, and “this and that” as the reasons when asked if he had the Army’s support, and explained the proviso of “but” as: “He remains silent, he speaks little.”

Shujaat said the hidden message of that silence was Musharraf’s “main reason” for giving up the presidency, and indicated that the same was the main factor behind his decision to give up the uniform after his re-election as the president. (ANI)