Musharraf Vows to Stay in Office

In TV Interview, Pakistan's President Dispels Departure Rumors

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 7 -- In his first public interview in months, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday moved to dispel rumors that he plans to step down amid renewed calls for his resignation.

Musharraf, 64, has faced increasing pressure to resign since his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q faction was routed in national parliamentary elections in February. But in a rare televised interview with top Pakistani journalists, Musharraf vowed to remain in the presidency.

"I am not tendering resignation now," he said in the interview, which was broadcast nationally.

Musharraf broke his lengthy public silence in the wake of recent rumors that he is preparing his last maneuver in a complex political chess game that has threatened to further destabilize Pakistan. Dressed in a dark blue suit and blue tie with white polka dots, the president appeared relaxed and confident as he denied that he plans to go into exile in Turkey, despite his growing unpopularity.

"I don't have a house outside of Pakistan, and I don't want one," Musharraf said.

Musharraf came to power in October 1999 after ousting prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a military coup. He went on to weather a number of challenges during his more than eight years of military rule.

His political fortunes shifted substantially, however, after he suspended the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, in March 2007. The move prompted thousands of lawyers to take to the streets in cities across Pakistan and ignited a political conflagration that sparked violent clashes.

Musharraf's image was further damaged in July, when more than 100 people were killed in a government-led raid on the historic Red Mosque in Islamabad. The botched operation in the heart of the country's normally sleepy capital stunned millions of Pakistanis and incurred the wrath of an increasingly powerful militant Islamist movement, whose leaders vowed revenge.

The crisis deepened in November when Musharraf declared a state of emergency and placed Chaudhry and about 60 other judges under house arrest. But the tipping point came in December, when former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide bomb attack during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi.

Bhutto's death gave rise to a wave of sympathy that helped usher her Pakistan People's Party to power in the Feb. 18 elections for the 342-seat National Assembly. Sharif, who had lived in exile in Saudi Arabia for years and remained a bitter opponent of Musharraf's, also benefited, with his Pakistan Muslim League-N party garnering the second-highest number of votes.

Within weeks, Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower and co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, formed a coalition and vowed to restore the country's judiciary.

But so far, the two leaders have been unable to agree on how to repair the justice system and whether to impeach Musharraf. Their disagreement has led to political paralysis as the country slides deeper into an economic downturn and faces an energy crisis that has left millions without regular electricity for months.