Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Carlotta Gall, Jane Perlez, New York Times

A day after resigning as army chief, Pervez Musharraf was sworn in as a civilian president Thursday, leaving him with vastly reduced powers and Washington with a far more complex Pakistan to deal with in its fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In his inaugural address, Musharraf welcomed the return from exile of his old foes, former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, saying it was “good” for political reconciliation.

However, neither was present at the ceremony in the state palace in Islamabad, and it remained unclear whether the changeover would defuse the threat of a boycott of forthcoming parliamentary elections. Such a move would undercut Musharraf’s effort to legitimize his rule through a democratic ballot.

“This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to the complete essence of democracy,” Musharraf told an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and military generals. “Elections will be held in January come whatever may.”

Bowing reluctantly to pressure at home and abroad, Musharraf, 64, relinquished his military role in a somber ceremony on Wednesday, ending eight years of military rule. He turned over control of the army to Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, 55, a former head of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.

The move sets up the potential of competing power centers in Pakistan, with a new army chief separate from the president and the recent return from exile of the country’s two main opposition leaders. That is likely to complicate Bush administration anti-terrorism policy in Pakistan, something officials in Washington were hoping to avoid, and one reason they supported Musharraf for so long.

Senior army commanders grumbled increasingly in recent months that Musharraf was so engrossed in his own political survival that he had become distracted from battling the country’s spreading insurgency, Western military officials said.

Though finally stepping down as army chief, he is likely to retain much of his old power as a civilian president, fortified by his emergency decree on Nov. 3, and loyalists he handpicked at the top of the military, according to Pakistani officials and analysts.

But in fairly short order, Musharraf, who plunged the nation into political turmoil with his emergency decree and has been a sometimes frustrating partner in Washington’s fight against terrorism, will become a diminished figure, they said, a civilian president in a country where traditionally the power lies with an elected prime minister, or the military chiefs who have overthrown them. Musharraf came to power in such a coup.

Though Kayani is considered loyal to the president, the real levers of power will pass to him, and he is believed to favor removing the army from the center of politics, they said.

“Kayani is loyal to Musharraf, but also to Pakistan,” one Western military official said. And as much as Washington has supported Musharraf, having a chief of the army on the job full time is a change likely to be welcomed. Bush administration officials have already praised Kayani as someone they can work with.

Kayani, an infantry commander and a graduate of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., has already played a prominent role in cooperating with the United States. He was promoted to full general and made vice chief of army staff in October. He immediately visited units serving on the front lines in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and said that sorting out the difficulties plaguing western Pakistan is a priority, a Western military official said.

Even with his new oath of office, Musharraf will confront considerable political challenges. Before giving up his army post, he transferred the power to lift the de facto martial law to the presidency in a decree last week, and so any decision to lift it remains firmly in his hands.

He continues under intense pressure to rescind the decree, which suspended the Constitution and the Supreme Court and has been criticized by opponents and Western diplomats as a blatant move to have his election as president confirmed.

Musharraf is also under pressure to free the senior lawyers and judges who declared his emergency decree illegal and remain under house arrest.

Not least, with parliamentary elections set for Jan. 8, Musharraf also will have to deal with Bhutto and Sharif, the man he overthrew in a coup in 1999.

Both politicians have called for Musharraf’s resignation and for changes in the Constitution to curb the president’s powers over parliament. As leaders of Pakistan’s largest political parties, either could head the next government as prime minister, perpetuating their power struggles with Musharraf as president.

While the military under Kayani is likely to support Musharraf as president, it is unlikely to intervene to save him in further political tests of will, said a former general and political analyst, Talat Masood.

One indication of the mood is a letter that a group of 20 former generals, air marshals and admirals, including Masood, sent this week to Musharraf calling on him to resign as head of state as well as chief of the army.

They called on him to lift the emergency and restore the Constitution, withdraw curbs on the news media and release political prisoners. Imposing the emergency as chief of army staff was bringing the armed forces into disrepute, they said.

One of the hardest things for Musharraf now may be to stop giving the commands.

“He’s the one who wants to sit in the driving seat,” said Pervaiz Elahi, who served as chief minister of the Punjab under Musharraf. “As commander in chief and president I still see him as controlling the army for five years,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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