Ruling out the possibility of quitting as the Army Chief, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he will seek re-election in uniform even as a US-based think tank has said his regime seems to be “buckling” under the weight of the growing unrest in the country after the suspension of top Supreme Court judge, putting in question the General’s “ability to win the next presidential election”.In an interview with Al-Arabia TV, Musharraf said he would not shed his uniform for the forthcoming presidentialelection. He said he won the election in uniform, and he would again contest it in uniform. Earlier, Musharraf had argued that he was constitutionally entitled to continue as the Chief of Army till the end of this year as the National Assembly authorised him through a resolution. He now plans to get re-elected between September and October as President and then hold general elections, scheduled to be held after November.In his interview, excerpts of which were carried by the local media, Musharraf, while commenting on the presentpolitical situation, said he was not going to enter into any deal with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto or her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). He said the elections would be held on time.On Iran’s nuclear issue, he said Pakistan supported Tehran for gaining nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and favoured a diplomatic solution to this matter. He said Pakistan was not in favour of increase of nuclear states.Reacting to the western media describing Pakistani nuclear bombs as ‘Islamic bombs’, Musharraf said no bomb could be named as a Hindu or Muslim bomb. Meanwhile, Stratfor, an online news intelligence portal, has said there were “significant doubts” now about President Musharraf’s ability to secure a second term as President.Referring to the President’s dressing down his team for not standing up for him in the ongoing domestic crisis, the Texas-based thinktank said, “These comments...show that the Musharraf regime is buckling under the weight of the crisis, which has created serious fissures within the civilian side of the hybrid Musharrafian political system.”“Infighting among his allies upon whom he depends to secure a second presidential term and the rapidly intensifying unrest in the country raise serious doubts about Musharraf’s ability to win the next presidential election,” the Daily Times of Pakistan reported Stratfor as saying in its commentary.“If the President cannot win the re-election, he could try to impose an emergency rule of sorts, but that would only exacerbate matters,” the online portal said.Sketching a post-Musharraf scenario, Stratfor says, “The military is unlikely to continue to directly run the country.”“Moreover, because of the assertiveness of the judiciary and the media, and an increasingly vibrant civil society, the military will have to give the civilian set-up more freedom than it did in 1988, when military rule came to an end after military-chief-cum-President Zia-ul-Haq died in a mysterious plane crash,” it said.
