Musharraf vows to return to Pakistan

LONDON: Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told his supporters that he would return to Pakistan, “within months” to take part in the general election scheduled for 2013 but he failed yet again to set a return date.
Addressing a crowd of an estimated 700 people in East Ham Town Hall, the former military dictator made another attempt to remain relevant to Pakistani politics, where his supporters have left his two-year-old All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in droves to join the old, well-established parties, and where he faces imminent arrest on dozens of charges.
The modest turnout at Musharraf’s rally in the heart of Pakistanis’ East London community was going all well until a group of youth linked to hard-line Jamaat-e-Islami started raising slogans against Musharraf for allegedly handing over Dr Aafia Siddiqui to the US and for allowing the US to start drone strikes inside Pakistani territory.
The APML youth workers took no chance and bundled about 5 men to outside the hall and threw them on to the pavement. Four Metropolitan Police detectives provided personal security to Musharraf.
They called the police and complained about the beating they received but no arrests were made. A dozen police officers manned the venue to prevent further violence.Taking cue from the protesters, Musharraf said it was wrong to accuse him of going into the alliance with the US. He questioned what had the elected civilian government done to stop drone campaign in the last four years since his ouster from the power and eventual exile to Britain and Dubai.
It was clear that the former military ruler didn’t even himself believe in what he was saying but to keep his supporters on his side, Musharraf painted a bleak picture of the affairs of Pakistan and held him as the only leader with the “record to be proud of” who had brought “respect and pride” to Pakistan and who can do it again.
“There is no one to speak for Pakistan today in the way I did. We have been roughly treated in the world after the capture of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. There has been no leadership making a stand in the world,” said the former military leader, who called on his supporters to make preparations for his return to being a “new reality in Pakistan.”
He shrugged off criticism that he was too scared to return to Pakistan. “I fear only Allah. I have never feared bullets. I have done nothing wrong, I have not swindled a single penny. I know I need to be in Pakistan to keep my party united and for it to grow. Pakistan needs my party to steer out from the current crises.
The bunch of people ruling Pakistan are failing the poor people of Pakistan on every front. They are not able to lead the great nation of Pakistan,” said Musharraf, who eight years reign in Pakistan was initially popular but got intolerable after he refused to leave power on time and sacked the highest judiciary.
He said the judiciary and executive are at war in Pakistan and both were “pulling in opposing directions.” He said the government had completely failed to maintain law and order in various parts of the country and “rising level of sectarian killings were a proof of this failure.”
Musharraf said the problem of Balochistan was not as grave as it was being made out to be and called for the “cutting of hands” and “expulsions” of those from Pakistan who don’t want to be part of Pakistan, including their “boycott” on the media channels.
He supported the right of overseas Pakistan to cast votes in Pakistani election but also supported their right to stand in Pakistani elections.