White House spokesman Tony Snow said the US continues to support Pakistan despite controversy involving the clandestine network of A Q Khan.
"I am not going to resign. I will remain in Pakistan. Rumours about my resignations are rubbish," he said in his first interaction with the media after the new government assumed office in March. "I cannot become a useless vegetable and I can't be witness to the downfall of the state," the 64-year-old former military ruler told a select group of senior Pakistani journalists, adding that he had no plans whatsoever to leave the country.
About 67 per cent of Pakistanis want Musharraf out of power and 56 per cent said the army, which has ruled Pakistan for long periods since it won independence 60 years ago, should have no role in the government, said the poll by the Washington-based International Republican Institute that was released on Thursday.
He dismissed reports that India and Pakistan agreed to a dialogue process due to pressure from the international community.
"Settlement of the Kashmir issue in line with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir will change the destiny of over a billion people of South Asia."
Ending the speculation about the president's future plans, his lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzda told a nine-member bench that he will give up his uniform before taking oath as president for a second term.
The deputy spokesman was non-committal on the US's position on whether Musharraf should step down from his army post.
Pakistan would maintain minimum deterrence in conventional and non-conventional defence fields, President Pervez Musharraf said, even as the army top brass approved a 15-year modernisation plan for the forces.
In a frank admission, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said he made a "mistake" by sacking Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry nearly two years back.
Musharraf said relations between India and Pakistan improved after India brought about a 'sea change' in its Kashmir policy, recognising it as a 'dispute' and a 'core issue.'
The report is an embarrassment to the Bush Administration, which views Musharraf as its best bet in the region against terrorism and proliferation of WMD.
They continue to be implicated in investigations of terrorism suspects half a world away, most recently the group Jamaat ud Dawa in the London airplane bombing plot.
"We cannot take people on board who believe in confrontation and who think that only militancy solves the problem. They cannot be taken on board, they will remain opposed to whatever we do.
A defiant Pervez Musharraf launched a counter-attack on his foes saying he would prove 'false before the nation' all the allegations levelled against him by the ruling coalition. Officials said the charges against the President are likely to be filed later in the week amid a rising clamour in the ruling coalition that he step down.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene with the Government of Pakistan for clemency to Indian citizen Sarabjit Singh who is at present facing death penalty in the neighbouring country for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast 1990. Badal's request comes in the wake of the rejection of the mercy petition of Sarabjit Singh by Pakistan President Musharraf, Chief Minister's Media Advisor H S Bains said on Thursday
The Central Investigation Agency-operated Predator drones may strike Laden's hide-out without taking permission beforehand from Islamabad if the US locates him in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas, a source close to the arrangement told the The Washington Times.
The correction was made in the Urdu version of the book Sub Sey Pehlay Pakistan, (Pakistan First) released two days ago.
The White House on Thursday said the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to stay in touch in a regular way, but has refused to get into the details of what transpired at the meeting between George W Bush, Pervez Musharraf and Karzai.
