Scuttled ambition: Musharraf feels daunted by prospect of return

Musharraf cancels plans after military denies requests for additional security.

ISLAMABAD:

Former president Pervez Musharraf has abandoned his plans to return to Pakistan after the military leadership refused to provide him the security to counter multiple threats to his life emanating from Balochistan and the tribal areas.

The military has also turned down Musharraf’s request to use their influence to prevent his arrest on arrival in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The former president, who left office in 2008, is one of the top targets of both the Taliban and Baloch nationalist militants.

Musharraf left the country soon after leaving office and has been spending most of his time in London, though he has also spent time in the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Musharraf, who launched a political party of his own in October 2010, has claimed several times that he will return to lead the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), but has not yet done so.

Associates of Musharraf told The Express Tribune that the general has been seeking guarantees of security from the current military leadership beyond that to which he is entitled to as a former president.

“He is scared … naturally, the level of threat he faces is much higher than the usual security. That’s why he wanted to be dead sure that enemies couldn’t get him if he comes back,” said one friend who wished to remain anonymous.

“And of course who else, other than the military, the army, can provide that sort of security.”

But his hopes faded when the current hierarchy of the military cold-shouldered his demands for extra security to spearhead his politics in Pakistan.

“It looks they (military generals) are not interested in him and his political designs anymore … it is not their tradition to support a former chief’s political gamble … because they are of no use,” commented another associate on possible reasons for which he might have been denied the extra security.

Al Qaeda, which operates in the tribal areas with its local partners including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has been on the hunt for Musharraf.

He was twice targeted by al Qaeda’s 313 brigade and the Amjad Farooqi group of the Punjabi Taliban even when he was the president.

“And now he can be an easy prey for them … they might still want to get him whenever possible,” said a friend.

The military raid on Islamabad’s Lal Masjid was the single most incendiary incident that turned all of the jihadi outfits of Pakistan against Musharraf.

Similarly, the assassination of Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006 invited him the wrath of nationalist militants of the province.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2011.