Musharraf to Return to Pakistan, Contest Parliamentary Election

Musharraf to Return to Pakistan, Contest Parliamentary Election


By Khurrum Anis and Haris Anwar

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Former Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who stepped down in 2008 after almost a decade in power as he faced possible impeachment charges, promised to return to the country this month and contest a parliamentary election scheduled for 2013.

Addressing a rally of supporters yesterday in Karachi, the country's biggest city, via a live video link from Dubai, Musharraf said he will return to the city between Jan. 27 and Jan. 30 and stand for the elections from the city of Chitral in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ex-army chief said court cases linking him to two political assassinations were "baseless" and he will fight them in the courts.

"The people should decide if they want the same leaders and political parties, and they should execute this decision in the next general elections," said Musharraf, who added that he wanted to restore "prosperity, progress and peace" to the country.

While Musharraf's plan to re-enter Pakistani politics after a more than three-year self-imposed exile comes amid a confrontation between the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari and the military, his ability to shape events will be limited, said Talat Masood, a retired army general and political analyst.

Musharraf, 68, has "very marginal political support" in Pakistan, Masood said in a phone interview Jan. 6 in Islamabad. "I don't see any possibility of him genuinely commanding widespread influence in any constituency."

Supreme Court Probe

Pakistan's Supreme Court is probing allegations by a U.S.- Pakistani businessman that Zardari offered through his envoy to Washington to remove senior military chiefs in return for U.S. pressure to avert a coup in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing in May. The inquiry by a judicial commission was prompted by the main opposition party and is supported by top generals. Zardari and the now dismissed ambassador, Husain Haqqani, deny the coup fear claims and the government has opposed the court investigation.

Musharraf ousted the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a 1999 bloodless coup after a dispute over support for Pakistan-backed militants occupying Indian-controlled territory in the Kargil region of Kashmir. He became a U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.

The former military commando quit the president's office after Pakistan's parliament threatened to bring impeachment charges against him, alleging the illegal seizure of power as he suspended the constitution for a second time in 2007 and economic mismanagement. He left Pakistan and has lived mainly in London and Dubai since August 2008.

High Court Order

A Pakistani high court in November ordered the government to bring Musharraf and his former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz back home on charges that they were behind the killing of Akbar Bugti, a tribal politician from Baluchistan, the Dawn newspaper reported on Nov. 25. Aziz denied involvement, the paper said in December.

In February last year, a trial court issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf over allegations he played a role in the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf, who survived at least four assassination attempts by Islamic extremists while in power, started his All Pakistan Muslim League party in 2010. Pakistani police the same year issued charges against him for unlawfully keeping top judges under house arrest in 2007 when he imposed emergency rule in the country.

--Editor: Mark Williams, John Deane

To contact the reporters on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at kkhan14@bloomberg.net; Haris Anwar in Islamabad at hanwar2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net