Ashfaq Kiani to tentatively succeed Musharraf

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7023672.stm

Musharraf appoints army successor

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has named his successor to take over as army chief, the military says.

The appointee is former head of intelligence Lt Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiani, military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told the BBC.

Gen Musharraf will resign as head of the army if he wins presidential elections on Saturday, his lawyers say.

Opposition parties say his candidacy is illegal and that he has broken previous promises to resign as army chief.

Lt Gen Kiani has been appointed deputy chief of army staff and will take over the top post when it falls vacant, the military says.

It is not clear when that will be.

Gen Musharraf's lawyers told the Supreme Court last week that he would stand down as army chief "soon after election and before taking the oath of office as president".

Lt Gen Kiani has taken part in recent secret talks on a possible power sharing deal between President Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

His appointment came as current Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met senior cabinet members to discuss measures which could see corruption charges against Ms Bhutto dropped.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said proposals to amnesty politicians who had been accused, but not convicted, of corruption in cases up to 1999 were in "the final stages".

"We hope that this ordinance may be promulgated as early as tomorrow," he told the Associated Press.

Boycott

Lt Gen Kiani headed Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence agency from 2004 until last month.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says he earned Gen Musharraf's confidence when he headed the investigation into two attempts on the president's life in December 2003, bringing a number of suspects to trial in a secret military court.

Lt Gen Kiani's appointment will be closely watched in Washington which has been putting pressure on Pakistan to do more in the US-led "war on terror".

News of his promotion came as scores of opposition MPs resigned from Pakistan's national parliament and provincial assemblies in protest at Saturday's presidential election.

They insist that President Pervez Musharraf is ineligible to stand.

Correspondents say that the resignations make it even more certain that Gen Musharraf will win the vote.

Members who resigned from the assemblies on Tuesday were drawn mainly from an alliance of Islamic parties, the MMA, and the PML-N party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the country's biggest party, is not taking part in the boycott.

Meanwhile two rival candidates for Saturday's election have filed fresh petitions in the Supreme Court against Gen Musharraf's candidacy, saying he is not eligible to stand while also remaining head of the army.

Last Friday the court dismissed a number of petitions, in a move seen as a major victory for the president.

The president is elected by MPs from the national assembly and Pakistan's four provincial assemblies.

Kiani's profile

Translation: Musharraf is trying to pander to the Punjabis by making one his AVCOS, and tentative successor (only if Mush is elected--this fact however may backfire the move, due to his declaration not to step down unless elected), as he has little popularity (boosted somewhat at this time due to a deal with Altaf Hussein of MQM--otherwise, it would be close to nil due to his service during 1977-1988 including in some of Zia-ordered atrocities in Sindh) amongst Urdu-native-speakers (his own ethnic group).

Musharraf has missed a chance to show some integrity (to anyone who didn't know that he utterly lacks this virtue) by simply resigning as ACOS now, staying as "caretaker" president till election, and appointing Kiani as ACOS from now forward.