LONDON // Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president, vowed yesterday to return to his home country to fight the 2013 election as he unveiled his new political party. The former general, who ruled for eight years following the military coup he led in 1999, mounted his renewed bid for power with the launch of his All Pakistan Muslim League before about 200 supporters at a hotel conference centre in London.
Mr Musharraf said that he was determined to make a political comeback because "there is a sense of despondency spreading in Pakistan". He told the BBC that he was currently involved "in the process of creating an environment" that would allow him to return to Pakistan before the 2013 elections. "The stronger I am politically, the more ground there will be for me to go and protect myself also," Mr Musharraf, 67, said.
At the launch, held amid tight security in Whitehall, Mr Musharraf admitted that he had made political mistakes during his last years in power, which had damaged the country. He promised that his party would "wage jihad against poverty and illiteracy", fight nepotism and corruption, and raise GDP growth to more than six per cent. "Internal and external threats will be dealt with strongly and the fight against terrorism will continue until the elimination of this scourge," he added.
"I believe in freedom of the media and will support it thoroughly - only those who are afraid of media have got dirty laundry to hide." Mr Musharraf reiterated his call for the Pakistani military to be given a constitutional role in the governance of Pakistan at a time when a "dysfunctional" government was facing a growing crisis. "We cannot allow Pakistan to disintegrate. No Pakistani will allow that, no Pakistani wants that. So who's the saviour? The army can do it. Can anyone else do it? No, nobody else can do it," he said.
"So therefore the answer is the army gets involved. As long as the military exists and is strong, nothing will happen to Pakistan". Mr Musharraf did not say exactly when he would return to Pakistan - where he accepted he risked assassination - but said: "I won't wait until 2013. I'll take the risk, but I'll take the risk at the right time." He has been living in London in self-imposed exile since quitting as president in August 2008, after a new government led by the party of the assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto threatened to impeach him. He was replaced by Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower.
Last month, Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said that Mr Musharraf was free to return to Pakistan but that he would have to face charges, including corruption, that were reinstated by the country's Supreme Court last year. Mr Musharraf says that he is not worried about any court action and is warning that another military coup could be in the offing unless the government in Islamabad raises its game.
A report in The Washington Post this week said that speculation of a coup had heightened after Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , the army chief, had "bluntly told" Mr Zardari that the government must put its house in order by cracking down on corruption and improving its "faltering" response to the devastating floods. In an appeal to supporters worldwide yesterday, Mr Musharraf said: "Today, God has given me the opportunity to set the tone of my political legacy for our future generations.
"Come join me in changing the destiny of Pakistan. It is not an easy task but one we must work for as Pakistan is ours. "All Pakistan Muslim League is our platform from where we must work tirelessly to serve our people and bring back national unity." His pro-American, anti-Taliban stance, however, has attracted widespread criticism and opponents in Britain are planning a protest rally today when he addresses a rally in Birmingham.
Prof Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit based at the University of Bradford, doubts that Mr Musharraf has enough popular support at home to mount a serious political challenge in the immediate future. "He is very much yesterday's man," he said. "He was basically forced out of his army position and the presidency; he was under pressure from several political parties for corruption and the coup in 1999. This is a man with a lot of powerful political enemies in Pakistan.
"The only thing Musharraf's got going for him at the moment is the support of diaspora Pakistanis and, maybe, the army. I cannot see him at the moment generating the necessary power base from the ground." However, according to press reports from Pakistan, Mr Musharraf's aides are making efforts to unite different factions of the Muslim League, not aligned to the former premier Nawaz Sharif's faction, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Security measures are also reported to have been stepped up at the former president's farmhouse home just outside Islamabad. Among the supporters at yesterday's launch were the TV personality Naeem Bukhari, who chaired the proceedings. In a related development, The Guardian newspaper reported this week that Scotland Yard detectives were investigating a possible link between the launch of Mr Musharraf's party and the murder this month of Dr Imran Farooq, a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who was also living in exile in London.
According to the report, Dr Farooq might have been fatally stabbed outside his home because he was planning to defect from the MQM, which is part of Pakistan's coalition government, and throw his weight behind Mr Musharraf. A police spokesman declined to comment on the report. dsapsted@thenational.ae
