“The spectacular rout of his PML-Q party at the polls has shorn the retired commando of his political base, leaving him isolated and exposed,” a report in The Guardian said. Quoting a senior PML-Q official, it said: “He’s been sulking... He’s retreated into a mental bunker, which is not healthy. He thinks everyone is out to get him and only listens to a small circle. It’s a dangerous mindset to be in at this point in time. He could decide to hit back.

“Musharraf’s bad mood stems from the prospect of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister from Punjab, whom he ousted in a 1999 coup and banished to Saudi Arabia a year later, returning to power.” Sharif, whose PML-N emerged the second biggest party in parliament, has vowed to oust Musharraf at the earliest. “The nation has given its verdict. The sooner he accepts it the better,” Sharif said at a press conference in which he and PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari unveiled plans to form a coalition.

“In some ways life has changed little for Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf since Monday’s election. The retired general still trots out for afternoon tennis, aides say, and enjoys a game of bridge a few times a week. In the evenings he pulls on a cigar and, although he can not admit it, nurses a glass of whisky,” the report said.
Musharraf, who has “a knack for survival”, has at least one loyal friend left.

Shortly after the electoral drubbing, US President George Bush called him while on a trip to Africa to pay warm tribute to him.

Pervez ‘to step down in days, not months’

Having apparently run out of options, Musharraf “is considering stepping down in days” to avoid a showdown with the newly elected Parliament in that country. “He (Musharraf) has already started discussing the exit strategy for himself. I think it is now just a matter of days and not months because he would like to make a graceful exit on a high,” The Sunday Telegraph quoted one of the President’s close confidantes as saying.

According to senior aides, Musharraf would prefer to resign rather than waiting to be impeached and forced out of office by the victorious opposition parties.

Musharraf had last week said that he would not resign despite his allies suffering a crushing defeat in the election and had also asserted that he intends to stay in office to guide the democratic transition in Pakistan.

But the official said that he had considered resigning immediately after the election results were known, but was persuaded by party loyalists that his sudden departure could precipitate a crisis.