NEW YORK, Sept 1: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), said in an interview published on Saturday that President Pervez Musharraf ‘would not risk resigning his military post before his re-election to another presidential term was assured’.

“If the chief justice attacks him, he can stay as army chief,” Chaudhry Shujaat said in carefully chosen words. “These are our recommendations. Nothing is final.”

In the interview with the New York Times, he said ‘the driving factor behind the general’s decision to resign was the newly independent Supreme Court and the likelihood that the chief justice would declare his continued military rule unconstitutional’.

The Times pointed out that the timetable laid out by Chaudhry Shujaat was the clearest indication of Gen Musharraf’s plans as his presidential term and a constitutional amendment allowing him to hold the dual posts of army chief and president both expire.

“He will take off the uniform before general elections” for a new parliament over the winter. He told the newspaper ‘some supporters are urging the general to keep his military post’, but that he (Shujaat) was among those urging the general to relinquish it.

“People say ‘don’t’, but I am very sure that he will,” he said.

President Musharraf will announce the date of retirement from the army after standing for re-election, the New York Times quoted Chaudhry Shujaat as having said.

If that plan falls through, Mr Hussain outlined a ‘last option’ -- deferment of the presidential election, dissolution of assemblies and holding of parliamentary elections. “This would leave the president and the prime minister in place until a new parliament was elected in two or three months,” the newspaper said.

Chaudhry Shujaat told the Times: “Whenever we try to think of some allowance, at once the chief justice comes in front.”

He said that ‘efforts are under way to reach out’ to Mr (Iftikhar) Chaudhry.

The PML (Q) chief maintained that ‘Gen Musharraf will resign from his post as chief of army staff before parliamentary elections scheduled for the first week of January, but said he would run for re-election as president in the coming weeks while still in uniform’.

The newspaper said that Chaudhry Shujaat “made it clear that the general’s intention to resign his military post was unrelated to the negotiations with Ms Bhutto”.

He accused Ms Bhutto of trying to take the credit for Gen Musharraf’s decision to resign his army post. The discussions with her in London had stalled, he said in reply to a question.

He said the agreement with her was reduced to her early demands that corruption cases against her be dropped. In return, Ms Bhutto assured the government side, her party would abstain from, but not disrupt, the presidential election.

But he conceded: “General Musharraf still needs her cooperation, and that of another opposition leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in passing a constitutional amendment that would allow him to get around the requirement that government officials be out of office for two years before running for election.”

Chaudhry Shujaat admitted that time was running out for the government side since it would need at least five days to pass any constitutional amendment through both houses of parliament before the president submitted nomination papers in mid-September.

The PML (Q) leader told the newspaper that “my party is against Ms Bhutto’s demand that the ban on prime ministers’ serving for the third time be lifted, which would allow her, as well as Nawaz Sharif to run again for prime minister”.

The newspaper said that Chaudhry Shujaat ruled out any pre-election collaboration with the Pakistan People’s Party, but did not discount a coalition or a government of national consensus after the election.

The PML chief lamented that the fortunes of General Musharraf had been damaged by the chief justice’s suspension. “Except for this judicial crisis, we were going in a very good way.”

“One wrong thing has spoiled the whole,” he said. “Still, he (Musharraf) is not afraid.”