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Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said yesterday he would definitely return home tomorrow to contest historic elections in May and that he was prepared to risk any danger to his life. |
He gave an interview with AFP in Dubai just hours after a Pakistani court granted him protective bail in a string of legal cases, paving the way for his return from nearly five years in exile without the risk of immediate arrest.
Commentators say most of his powerbase has evaporated and that he will only be able to secure at the most a couple of seats for his All Pakistan Muslim League (APLM) party in the next national assembly.
“Two hundred percent! I am travelling back on Sunday to Pakistan,” he said in Dubai, where he has divided his time with London.
“I will go by land, air or sea ... even to the peril of my life this is the oath I took for the country.”
Commentators believe that an interim government, set to guide the country during the election campaign, should be in place tomorrow.
“There will be no arrest or anything,” Musharraf said. “I decided I will go back whatever the judgment (in court) but the judgment is favourable,” he said.
But political analysts said Musharraf would be disappointed if he thought he was
capable of returning to power.
“He has no political future,” Hasan Askari said.
“He thinks that people are so annoyed by the outgoing government that they will join his party and support him, but it won’t happen.”
Rasul Bakhsh Raees, who teaches political science at the Lahore University of
Management Sciences, agreed.
“After an initial show in the media upon his arrival in Karachi, he will have nothing else to do. He has no future,” he said.
“I think he will have good time with his buddies, play golf and drink together with them in the future but he won’t have any political activity.”