If Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf [Images] decides to contest the 2007 election, he will do so as a civilian, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri told NDTV on Friday.

"The president himself was the first to admit that a head of state should not be in uniform," Kasuri said.

Referring to Musharraf's speech on the issue, Kasuri said the president had given a few reasons [for being in uniform] and one of them was improvement of relations with India and the peace process. "There is a lot of merit in what he says," he added.

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Kasuri said he himself was not in favour of a president in uniform. 

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had said in May that Musharraf will contest the 2007 polls.

Musharraf, in an interview to a local daily last week responded by saying, "These are individual opinions. I don't want to comment on it. There are two years to go. Let's see what happens."