Saeed Minhas
Amidst heightened political pressure and threats of an impeachment move and after securing safe passage from the ruling coalition government, President Gen (Retd) Musharraf has announced his resignation from the office during an hour-long televised speech on Monday afternoon and is destined to leave the country for
Reading out a speech at Aiwan-e-Sadar (Presidential palace) in
Informed sources claimed that US,
Mr. Musharraf decided to address the nation as ministers warned over the weekend that impeachment proceedings against him could begin as early as Tuesday of this week.
The drive to impeach him has been led by Nawaz Sharif, the head of
He was forced to give up control of the armed forces last year. The president’s public standing suffered a huge setback in 2007 when he sacked
In his hour-long televised speech, Mr. Musharraf said his appeals for reconciliation with his opponents had fallen on deaf ears. He was not afraid of the impeachment charges he is facing, he said. "Not a single charge can be proved against me." But he said the impeachment process would have plunged the country into more uncertainty. "This is not the time for individual bravado." He said whatever mistakes he had made in office were unintentional and that "I leave myself in the hands of the people".
He began his address by saying that when he took over in a military coup in 1999,
He said that "false allegations were made against me" by people who "tried to turn the truth into lies".
He gave a long defense of the country’s economic record, detailing the progress he said it had made under his rule. He said the problems
Soon after the resignation of Mr. Musharraf, country main stock exchange saw a rise of 569 points in its index while rupee strengthened against dollar by Rs. 1.20 and closed the business day at around Rs. 75 while it was Rs 77 on the last working day of last week.
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