Islamabad, Feb.25 (ANI): The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) has technically abandoned President Pervez Musharraf, TheNation has learnt from the party sources.

The party, which contested general elections in 2002, has somehow manoeuvred to register itself as Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and now become the 'Mother' political entity.

Background interviews and discussions with the party members suggest that the move to change the party title was done some time last year to set it out for the general elections.

Despite repeated efforts to seek a clarification, neither Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi nor any other central leader was available for comment on the issue.

Some members took it as a conspiracy against the President in a bid to marginalize his future political standing. However, few close to the central leadership believed it was done on the recommendation of party's Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

The move is also been attributed to the soul searching undertaken by party bigwigs over the weekend.

In the meantime, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden has said President Pervez Musharraf should make a "graceful exit" before he is forced out of power.

Biden, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Pakistan recently along with Senators John Kerry and Chuck Hagel to monitor the elections.

He dismissed reports that the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) defeat in elections is a setback for the US operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

"I firmly believe if opposition parties do not focus on old grudges, there's plenty in Pakistan and give him a graceful way to move, that will be exactly what the Telegraph of London reported, apparently," the Daily Times quoted Biden, as saying. (ANI)