{"id":3394,"date":"2008-08-18T17:27:09","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T17:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/08\/18\/pakistan-president-pervez-musharraf-resigns\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T11:12:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:12:03","slug":"pakistan-president-pervez-musharraf-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2008\/08\/18\/pakistan-president-pervez-musharraf-resigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"
Musharraf steps down to avoid impeachment charges<\/b><\/p>\n
\"\"PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation today in the face of looming impeachment charges, ending a turbulent nine years in power for the key US ally.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The former army chief, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, had been under huge pressure to quit before the coalition government launched the first impeachment proceedings in Pakistan’s 61-year history.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Addressing the nation in a live broadcast Mr Musharraf said he was resigning \u201cin the interests of the nation\u201d and had hoped \u201cthe nation and the people will forgive my mistakes.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

His days in power looked increasingly fragile after his political rivals swept to power in February. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He stood down as Chief of the army and faced impeachment charges by a coalition government run by the party of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated last year. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Musharraf used his speech to defend accusations of violation of the constitution and gross misconduct made against him by his political opponents.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cFalse allegations were filed against me and they tried to turn truth into lie and they tried to deceive the people\u201d, he said as he addressed the nation.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cTo impeach is parliament’s prerogative and to answer it is my right. I believe in myself and I have faith in my god, Allah, that no charge sheet can stand against me. Not a single charge can be proved against me because I never did anything for myself. Whatever I did was for Pakistan first. That was my motto.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI leave my future in the hands of the people, to let them be the judges and let them do the justice. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going with the satisfaction that whatever I could do for this nation, for the people, I did it with honesty and integrity. But I am also a human being. It is possible I might have committed mistakes, but I hope that this nation and the people will know that my intentions were true.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He ended his hour-long broadcast with the words \u201cGod protect Pakistan. God protect you, Pakistan forever. Long live Pakistan\u201d.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

As news of his resignation swept across the country people rejoiced and danced in the streets. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

His political opponents welcomed the decision saying it was \u201ca victory of democratic forces\u201d.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the constitution, the chairman of the Senate, Mohammadmian Soomro, will now become acting president.<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musharraf steps down to avoid impeachment charges PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation today in the face of looming impeachment charges, ending a turbulent nine years in power for the key US ally. The former army chief, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, had been under huge pressure to quit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}