Via Voice of America News -
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he is resigning in order to avoid an impeachment battle he says would harm the nation. In a live-broadcast speech to the nation Monday, Mr. Musharraf said he decided to step down after consulting with his legal advisors and political allies. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins has this profile of the embattled Pakistani leader.
Pervez Musharraf burst into international prominence in 1999, when he led a military coup and forced Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into exile.
His profile rose even higher after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The leadership of al-Qaida, which masterminded the attacks, was based in Afghanistan and Pakistan had supported the Taliban government in Kabul. But when President George Bush sent troops to Afghanistan to attack al-Qaida, Mr. Musharraf signed on as an ally in the war on terrorism.
In early 2008, he called terrorism the country's biggest problem.
"This is the greatest threat to Pakistan's being, and we have to have political reconciliation to fight this menace together," he said. "Let's unite, political reconciliation, and defeat these terrorists."
When he took power, then-General Musharraf promised he would bring prosperity and democracy to Pakistan.
He did introduce economic reforms that helped spur several years of economic growth. But experts such as Talat Masood, a Pakistani political analyst, say he did not foster democracy.
"His greatest weakness has been that he weakened all institutions of the state, weakened them to a point where the country is moving from one crisis after another; that he posed that he was a democrat, but in his true colors, was a dictator like anyone else," said Masood.
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