Pakistan's former dictator, Pervez Musharraf
AFP
Pakistan's former dictator, Pervez Musharraf came under mounting pressure Thursday to delay his return from exile, after Islamabad warned that he would be arrested if he lands in the crisis-ridden country.
Friends and close supporters met late Wednesday and strongly advised Musharraf to put off a homecoming announced between January 27-30 after more than three years in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai.
Mohammad Amjad, senior vice president in Musharraf's All Pakistan Muslim League, told AFP that "no final decision had yet been taken" but said the retired general would make an announcement on his plans "later, perhaps today".
"His friends and party officials want him to postpone it for sometime. This was discussed yesterday at a meeting and conveyed to him," Amjad said.
Musharraf had promised to fly home between January 27-30 to contest general elections now widely expected within months as Pakistan's civilian government sinks deeper into a major crisis, squeezed by the military and the judiciary.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the upper house of parliament that Musharraf would be arrested if he returns as planned.
"I assure this house that if he lands in Pakistan, he will be arrested because he is a PO (proclaimed offender)," Malik said.
In a telephone address to a political rally in Pakistan's largest city of Karachi on January 8, Musharraf promised to return "despite all sorts of dangers to my life" but he has already delayed past plans to come back.
Despite widespread disillusionment with the current government over power cuts, inflation, unemployment and the unpopular US alliance, few believe that the ex-dictator is the answer to Pakistan's troubles.
He faces two Pakistani court warrants for his arrest -- connected to the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a rebel leader in the southwest and the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan's crisis on Thursday saw the prime minister hauled before the Supreme Court on contempt proceedings at a time of enormous pressure with the army over alleged efforts to clip the military's wings with American help.
"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.
On October 19, a suicide attack targeting Bhutto's homecoming killed at least 139 people in Karachi, to date Pakistan's deadliest militant attack.
"He faces security issues. The war on terror began in his rule, he had the Red Mosque siege and there is the murder case of tribal leader Akbar Bugti whose clan has already announced a cash reward for his killing," Nawaz said.
The military has not publicly announced that it would guarantee his safety and retired lieutenant general Talat Masood also warned against his return.
"This is not the right time for him to come. It will be difficult for the government to provide security," Masood said, dismissing his aims as "unrealistic" and his party as "politically bankrupt".
"He is taking a political step and the military cannot do much because there are cases against him and he may be arrested," he added.