Lieutenant General Faiz Ali Chishti (Retd) who opposes President Pervez Musharraf said he would "not be surprised" if Musharraf had engineered terror attacks to manipulate his image in the West.
Faiz Ali Chishti heads the influential Ex-Servicemen Society, which last week issued a blunt open letter signed by more than 100 senior ex-servicemen calling on Musharraf to quit.
The statement fuelled Western speculation that Musharraf may be losing support in the military following his resignation as army chief in November, a potential blow with parliamentary elections only three weeks away.
"Musharraf is an intellectually dishonest person. He is a clever ruler, who makes the US and the West believe that they can only effectively deal with al Qaeda as long as he is in power," Chishti told AFP in an interview. "But what is al Qaeda and who are Taliban? I will not be surprised if this clever ruler is behind all suicide attacks," he said.
"My request as head of the society, is that Pervez Musharraf should also step down as President," Chishti said. "We request all ex-servicemen and even those, who are in uniform to vote for persons, who are fit to do something for this country and people." Chishti himself is no stranger to military rulers, having supervised the imposition of martial law in July 1977 in Pakistan. He went on to become a close associate of late dictator General Zia-ul-Haq.
But he said that the situation now was different, partly because of Musharraf's close ties to Washington. "Musharraf is in league with the US and the West for the sake of his own survival. The majority of Pakistanis feel he... has been taking illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful actions for his survival," Chishti said. He rejected Western "propaganda" about Musharraf being able to safeguard Pakistan's nuclear weapons from Islamic extremists, saying it was the army's job.
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