Dealing with turmoil: ‘No one can dare challenge Pakistan’

Musharraf says army will foil all threat against Pakistan’s territorial integrity

Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf ruled out the possibility of anyone hurting Pakistan in the presence of the army which is fully capable of giving a befitting response to any adventurism.

“The army will thwart all challenges to Pakistan’s territorial integrity,” he told the anchor of a private TV channel.

Musharraf said no country, including the United States, should bother to interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs as Pakistanis knew how to solve their problems.

But the former president conceded that there was a growing sense of unease over the current political stalemate. The crisis, according to Musharraf, should be resolved in a peaceful manner.

He said the army was closely monitoring the whole situation. “Just like 1999, the people are once again looking at the army for help,” he said.

He disagreed that it was the right time for re-election. “But it is the real democracy that people have come out of their homes,” he added.

Criticising the former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, he said he had tried to expose him in 2007.

“However, the election commission’s former official Afzal Khan’s statement has unveiled his real character,” he added.

Musharraf claimed that Pakistan’s journey towards development had been had stunted since 2007. He claimed that no one in the country was free from corruption. “However, things will have to be reformed from the top,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2014.