The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Islamabad

About 100 retired senior military officers issued a blunt open letter Tuesday exhorting President Pervez Musharraf to resign. The demand from the retired officers is the latest sign that Musharraf, who's traveling in Europe to try to shore up his battered image, faces increasingly strong challenges to his rule. Musharraf shed his army uniform last month but relies on the military as a pillar of support. The retired officers - including some two dozen army generals, three air force air marshals and eight naval admirals - signed the letter after a meeting at a hotel adjacent to the general headquarters of the Pakistan armed forces in nearby Rawalpindi. The letter said the officers voiced "great concern and anguish" during discussions about the "prevailing conditions" in the country. Some of the officers had signed statements against Musharraf before, but never in such numbers. The group, calling itself the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen's Society, said in its statement that it had determined that Musharraf must act quickly. "He should resign his office of the president. This is in the supreme national interest and makes it incumbent on him to step down," it said. The group's leader, retired army Lt. Gen. Faiz Ali Chishti, said in a telephone interview that the retired officers believe they represent most Pakistanis.