Hope your all well inshallah, so Musharaf leaves presidency, so what now for pakistan???? Will things be better or worse?? Allah hu alim.

Inshallah May Allah SWT bring democracy and peace to pakistan. May the new leader(S) listen to the people and dont destroy pakistan, they change pakistan, for the better inshallah.

Ameeeen! I might apply now innit now that the position is open lol kiddin but yeh....May the foundations on which Pakistan was built shine through.

Why he decided to leave

ameen to that lovely speech

I dont know anythin about the other puppets holding up Pakistan in the past but this one was majorly lame just for allowing Laal Masjid to happen as it did.

^ i know, that was a gross atroctity, muslims killing practising muslims. women and children werent even spared, it disgusts me that pakistan could do that, after all the bloodshed they endured to achieve independence.

It will interesting to see who takes power in Pakistan now. Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. Those who wanted to see Musharaf out of power may soon look to his government with bittersweet longing.

What language does he speak? Everytime I heard him speak he used a mix of English and some other language, probably Urdu, like kama ruji al speaker of the assembly sukabma lui...

Pakistan's Musharraf quits under impeachment threat

By Zeeshan Haider

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf quit office on Monday to avoid impeachment charges, nearly nine years after the key U.S. ally in its campaign against terrorism took power in a coup.

Speculation the former army chief would resign had mounted since the fractious coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said this month it planned to impeach him.

"Whether I win or lose, the nation will lose," Musharraf, 65, said of the impeachment process in an hour-long televised address in which he passionately defended his record.

"The honor and dignity of the country will be affected and in my view, the honor of the office of president will also be affected."

Prolonged jockeying and uncertainty over Musharraf's position had hurt financial markets in the nuclear-armed country of 165 million people, and raised concerns in Washington and elsewhere that it was distracting from efforts to tackle violent militants, especially in the areas bordering Afghanistan.

Coalition officials had said Musharraf sought immunity from prosecution but he said in his speech he was asking for nothing.

"I don't want anything from anybody. I have no interest. I leave my future in the hands of the nation and people," he said.

One main coalition party, that of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif whom Musharraf ousted in 1999, has insisted he face trial for treason. Bhutto's party says parliament should decide.

Musharraf ended his final address as president with the words: "May God protect Pakistan, may God protect you all. Long live Pakistan forever."

Pakistani stocks jumped 4 percent on the news and the rupee, which had lost a quarter of its value this year, began strengthening.

"It eliminates all the uncertainty in the market," said Asad Iqbal, managing director at Ismail Iqbal Securities. "The government will hopefully start concentrating on the economy ... they have no excuses now."

Musharraf has been isolated since his allies lost parliamentary elections in February. But in his speech he defiantly lambasted the coalition for what he described as failed economic policies, and said he had brought prosperity.

The powerful army, which has ruled for more than half the country's 61-year history, has publicly kept out of the controversy over its old boss, and no protests over Musharraf's resignation were expected.

Indeed, celebrations broke out across the country after the announcement, with people dancing and handing out sweets.

"Thank God he's resigned. The country will do much better now," said Mohammad Ilyas, 30, in Karachi.

"VICTORY FOR BENAZIR"

The chairman of the Senate, Mohammadmian Soomro, will be acting president until a new one is elected within 30 days, but it is not clear who that will be. Traditionally, Pakistan's president has been a figurehead, although under Musharraf the office was much more powerful.

Leaders of the ruling coalition, which had prepared impeachment charges against Musharraf focusing on alleged violations of the constitution, welcomed the resignation.

Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zaradri, who leads her party, said it was a momentous day for democracy and the people had been able "to roll back the frontiers of dictatorship."

He recollected one of his wife's sayings, that "democracy is the best revenge." Bhutto was assassinated in a December 27 suicide attack the government blamed on an al Qaeda-linked militant.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a senior member of Bhutto's party, also welcomed what he called the end of dictatorship but warned members of parliament they had the responsibility of proving the success of democracy.

A career army officer, Musharraf narrowly survived several al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempts.

Critics say he suffered from a "savior complex" and believed he was indispensable. He promised to return Pakistan to democracy but opponents say he stifled political freedom.

As challenges mounted, Musharraf reverted to autocratic ways. His downfall will be traced back to March 9, 2007, when he tried to force Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to resign.

(With additional reporting by Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider, and Koh Gui Qing in Karachi; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Ameen to duas.

Democracy in Pakistan is not mature enough to befit common people. A common man in even don’t know the correct definition of the system. Democracy in Pakistan, most of the time, had been under the shades of dictatorship. Pakistan is learning basic terms of democracy at the moment thus we can not compare it with the democracy of developed countries.
Serious groups of the country are neither happy nor sad with departure of Musharaf. They ask only one question: “What relief will this give to a common man?” Whereas common man is still striving for basic necessities.

I don't support Musharaf or anything like that. But I still think that things are not going to get better. With the history of our current leadership I think Pakistan was better off with our last government. I really hated the Lal Masjid operation but the current government would probably had done the same