Musharraf vows to come back to contest polls

ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf has ignored the bitter experience he suffered in 2013 when he had returned to Pakistan, ending his self-exile, to take part in the general elections a few months later, and has now again vowed to come back to participate in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

He believes that the situation will be very conducive for his politics with the exit of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments and that he will be in a position to get relief from courts. He has declared that his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) has the support of 23 political parties and more forces are willing to join hands with it for the elections.

Last time, Musharraf had flown back from abroad in March 2013 when the polls were scheduled to be held in May that year. As he had landed in Pakistan, his woes had unfolded in the shape of one criminal case after another plus political isolation.

At one stage, the Peshawar High Court had disqualified him for life to contest election. His nomination papers were rejected, and he was thus pushed out of the electoral field. His APML could win just one seat from the northern areas. It failed to put up candidates elsewhere for being a nonentity, a status that is still unchanged. It was founded abroad and continues to exist in papers only.

Due to the depressing scenario he was deep in, Musharraf spent the next three years in an agonising state, including highly restricted movements due to security reasons and threats to his life. However, as he stayed in Pakistan confronted with a difficult situation, he was desperate to leave it on one pretext or the other. Ultimately, he departed Pakistan the next day after his name was struck off the Exit Control List (ECL).

While Musharraf was in Pakistan for three years from 2013 to 2016, he did not appear even once before any court despite repeated summons. Once he was set to be present himself before the special court that was trying him for high treason because it had issued strict orders to do so, he, with the help of the federal government, instead rushed to a military hospital of Rawalpindi where he remained admitted for a long time to avoid court appearance.Musharraf had gone abroad after assuring the apex court that he would certainly return in a maximum of six weeks after getting the treatment, but he never looked back with the intention to come back amid unending taunts and challenges by several PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders, who urged him to change his mind.

The former army chief strongly feels that it is a favourable environment for him to fly back when the PML-N is under intense pressure that will intensify in the days to come, and it can’t incapacitate him anymore. However, even previously it had not created any major obstacles in his way to doing politics.

Indications are that he will return to Pakistan close to the formation of the caretaker government in May. He feels that during this interim period the PML-N will be on the receiving end, and he will have a free field to operate. His political ambitions apart, he has stated that the PML-N is going to win the upcoming polls if it was not stopped by the Supreme Court by constituting a caretaker setup for an extended period.

Previously, he was strongly counseled not to return, but he paid no heed as he was basking in the glory of his followers on the social media. He had expected that hundreds of thousands of people would welcome on the airport on his homecoming, but as it turned out, his reception was very poor as per his public standing.

While facing court cases, the PML-N and PPP leaders are persisting with calls to judicial bodies and other circles to also make Musharraf accountable otherwise the campaign against them will remain a farce.