'Musharraf to shed uniform by Dec'

"The government has given an understanding in unambiguous terms that the president would be retiring as army chief in December 2004," The News quoted a senior government leader as saying.

According to the paper, a Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MMA leader said that in this regard Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has given a verbal understanding to the MMA leadership.

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However, a clear cut off date has not been mentioned as to when Musharraf would vacate the office of Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

The unidentified MMA leader said: "All the three remaining contentious issues have been resolved." The three issues are - a clear cut off date by the president to leave the COAS office, presidential election or as an alternate the President must seek trust vote through a resolution in parliament, and judges' age

The government and the opposition, excluding the PPPP and the PML-N, have also agreed that the President would seek trust vote through a resolution in the parliament. On the third contentious issue, the two sides have agreed that the judges' age would be re-fixed with mutual understanding.

Besides, the report said, a timeframe of two to five years would be given by the federal government to take the local government system out of the VI Schedule of the Constitution. Thereafter, the provincial governments would directly control the local government system. The provincial assemblies would be able to make laws for elections, and other matters of the local government system.