Former chief of Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has said “an Iran-like revolution” is possible in the country if President Pervez Musharraf does not step down immediately. “If Musharraf does not step down. We may have to think (about forcibly removing him) because, after all, the country is more important,” former ISI Chief Hamid Gul has said in an interview to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.“We don’t want the army and people to be clashing on the streets. That would be a disaster — a civil war or if we are lucky a revolution, something like the Iranian revolution (against the Shah in 1979),” he said. “Pakistan is ripe for such possibilities.” Asked whether this meant his advocating a coup against Musharraf, he said: “No, we are the ex-servicemen, not the serving men. I am saying to link arms with civil society — with the lawyers, the students. If we join them, it will have greater pressure on Pervez Musharraf to get out .”
