Homecoming put off?: Musharraf likely to delay return

Opponents may take advantage of the turmoil going on now in the country and this might work against Musharraf.

LAHORE:

Former president Pervez Musharraf is in a fix over returning to Pakistan – the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has purportedly given him a go-ahead to return, but his close aides insist otherwise, fearing their inability to organise a reception for his homecoming.

Sources privy to the development say Musharraf met his close friends and aides in London who advised him against his homecoming, originally announced to be between January 27 and 30.

Parleys with PPP

Sources said that Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hassan conveyed to Musharraf a message from the PPP leadership that he should not delay his return any further. Hassan, who is ostensibly engaged in negotiations with Musharraf on behalf of PPP, also expressed regrets over not returning to Pakistan with Musharraf, along with diplomats of other guarantor nations, as originally planned.

Sources quoted Hassan as excusing himself from the trip due to his reluctance to face Islamabad High Court over the Memogate scandal.

A high-level PPP delegation comprising party members close to the presidential camp met Chaudhry Sarfraz Anjum, a close ally of Musharraf, in Cambridge in September 2011, and negotiated Musharraf’s return to Pakistan, sources said. Further negotiations with Musharraf were conducted in London by Hassan, on behalf of the president.

Sources said Musharraf will travel to guarantor countries, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, and discuss his return with their monarchs.

He is expected to announce the delay in return on January 24, at a party workers’ dinner in Jeddah.

“Party leaders are convinced it is not a suitable time for Musharraf to come to Pakistan,” said Mohammad Ali Saif, central secretary in the retired general’s All Pakistan Muslim League (APML).

“A meeting of the party central executive committee has been summoned on January 25-26 in Dubai to make a final decision. Musharraf will chair the meeting,” Saif added.

Aides fear that the civilian government, under massive pressure from the military and the judiciary, may exploit Musharraf’s return to divert attention from a series of crises likely to force early elections within months.

“Musharraf’s opponents may take advantage of the turmoil going on now and this might work against him. That’s why some have suggested that he has to delay,” said a Dubai-based aide of the former president. But, he has yet to make a final decision, sources close to Musharraf told Reuters on Thursday.

Mohammad Amjad, senior vice president in the APML, confirmed that Musharraf had been advised to postpone but that a final decision was pending.

Musharraf had promised to fly home to contest general elections now widely expected within months as the civilian government sinks deeper into crises. In an interview broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at the same time that Amjad spoke to AFP, Musharraf admitted he would be in danger in Pakistan.

“I do feel endangered. There is a danger certainly, but you take your own protection and then leave things to destiny. Nobody can ensure you 100% protection,” he said in what appeared to be a pre-recorded interview.

He admitted that his arrest was possible but said he would “like to remain out” of the crisis currently engulfing the government, army and judiciary.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the upper house of parliament that Musharraf would be arrested if he returns as he faces two court warrants for his arrest connected to the 2006 death of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti and the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“I personally feel he should not come. The current situation is not in his favour and the atmosphere is hostile,” Hamid Nawaz, a former general and Musharraf’s former interior minister, told AFP.

He said Musharraf’s fledgling APML party was ill-prepared to contest elections and that the former ruler would not be safe in Pakistan.

(Read: An unimpressive rally)

(With additional input from AGENCIES)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2012.