Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf was sworn in as a civilian president on Thursday for another five years in office, a day after he resigned as army chief. This is his second term as a president of Pakistan. He first took power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled for eight years as a military president.

On Wednesday Musharraf resigned as army chief, after he had bid farewell to the army on Tuesday in a ceremony that was held at the army’s headquarters at Rawalpindi.

Musharraf’s successor as army chief is General Ashfaq Kiyani, a former chief of the country's powerful intelligence service. He is an infantry commander and a graduate of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and was described by Western diplomats as Pakistan’s most capable commander.

He is considered loyal to the president, but is also believed to support the removal of army from the center of politics.

Western military officials said: “Kayani is loyal to Musharraf, but also to Pakistan,” the New York Times reports.

He already received praise from Bush’s administration saying that he is someone they can work with.

Musharraf took the oath as a civilian president at the presidential palace in Islamabad from the country's newly installed chief justice, Abdul Hameed Dogar, in front of hundreds of dignitaries wearing a traditional black tunic.

After the solemn ceremony, Musharraf, 64, held a televised speech saying: “This is a milestone in the transition of Pakistan to a complete essence of democracy," AFP quotes.

He also pledged that the general elections will be held “come hell or high water”, even though former premiers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, threat to boycott them

Musharraf dismissed the calls by U.S. President George W. Bush and other Western allies to lift the state of emergency saying: "We want democracy, we want human rights, we want civil liberties, but we will do it our way. We understand our society, our environment, better than anyone in the West."

He will address the nation at 8:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Thursday.

There are speculations that he would not lift the state of emergency during the speech.

As a civilian president he can dismiss the government.

Bhutto said that Musahrraf met her demands but added: "We are not in a hurry to accept Pervez Musharraf as a civilian president."

Musharraf’s supporters say that his move of resigning as head of the army may come in time to regain some of his standing.