PERVEZ MUSHARRAF stepped down as Pakistan’s military commander yesterday, fulfilling a key opposition demand a day before he was to be sworn in as a civilian president.

Key opposition leader Benazir Bhutto welcomed the belated step, but she said her party had yet to accept him as head of state.

Britain, which shares the United States’ deep concern about Islamic terrorism emanating from Pakistan, said Musharraf’s move was “an important part” of his plan to restore constitutional order.

“We understand the threat to Pakistan’s peace and security, but I have urged President Musharraf to use the normal democratic process to respond,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

An emotional Musharraf relinquished his post by handing over his ceremonial baton to his successor, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who is widely expected to maintain the army’s pro-Western policies.

Hundreds of senior officers, politicians and other civilians watched from the stands as an unsmiling Musharraf — wearing a phalanx of medals and a green sash across his uniform — reviewed the ranks to the strains of “Auld Lang Syne.”

“I’m proud of this army and I was lucky to have commanded the world’s best army,” Musharraf said. “I will no longer command ... but my heart and my mind will always be with you.”

Since seizing power in a 1999 coup, Musharraf has served as president while retaining his post as head of the armed forces.

But he will have to jostle for power with Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif — two former prime ministers just returned from exile and itching to return to office.

Both are threatening to boycott January parliamentary elections, though they also have registered as candidates and say they only will shun the elections if the entire opposition unites behind that drastic step.

A senior leader of Bhutto’s party said yesterday that Musharraf’s quitting the army was “too little, too late.”

“Now the political forces and civil society are moving in a different direction, to change the country along purely democratic lines,” Mian Raza Rabbani said.

Sharif spokesman Pervez Rasheed said: “Musharraf hasn’t taken off his uniform under his own will, rather under pressure from the powers who installed him and kept him in power eight long years,” an apparent reference to the United States.

Musharraf was re-elected by Parliament in October, but the Supreme Court held up his confirmation following complaints that a military man could not constitutionally serve as an elected head of state.

He reacted by proclaiming a state of emergency Nov. 3, firing the chief justice and other independent judges and replacing them with his appointees.

Officials have indicated that the emergency could be lifted soon after Musharraf takes the presidential oath, but have not set a firm date.

Sharif, who arrived from Saudi Arabia on Sunday, has taken a hard line against Musharraf, who ousted Sharif’s second government in the 1999 coup.

Bhutto, who has twice been put under house arrest to stop her from leading protests, has joined Sharif in denouncing Musharraf’s backsliding on democracy.

(SD-Agencies)