KEY POINTS:
The Pakistan Army should urge President Pervez Musharraf to quit during the next two months, a Brussels-based think-tank said in a report on the deteriorating situation after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
"It is time to recognise that democracy, not an artificially propped up, defrocked, widely despised general, has the best chance to provide stability and turn back extremists' gains," said Robert Templer, International Crisis Group's Asia programme director.
"If Musharraf refuses to resign voluntarily, it is in the interest of the military establishment, his sole bastion of support, to distance itself from its former chief lest it, instead of him, become the target of public hostility," the group said.
"Particularly the United States ... should encourage the military leadership under General Ashfaq Kayani's command to protect its ability to continue to serve Pakistan by persuading Musharraf to resign in the interest of national reconciliation."
The ICG, which has been highly critical of Musharraf and has influence within the US Congress, said concerns that the security situation would become worse if Musharraf quit were misplaced. Senate chairman Mohammadmian Soomro should take over as interim President.
- REUTERS
