KARACHI: Former President Pervez Musharraf has returned to Pakistan on Sunday, ending a four-year self-imposed exile and all set to lead his party in the general elections to be held on May 11.
Musharraf flew down to Karachi from Dubai to a welcome by All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML) supporters, who lined up the road leading to the airport.
The former President is expected to hold a media conference at the airport since officials have cancelled permission for a planned rally at Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi.
In a press conference before leaving for Pakistan, he said that people across the country would welcome him including the people from Balochistan and tribal areas.
Musharraf said that the public gathering that was supposed to be held at Mazar-e-Quaid was cancelled and now he would address a press conference at Karachi airport.
On the other hand, the Pakistani Taliban threatened to dispatch a squad of suicide bombers to assassinate Musharraf.
But the former military ruler has dismissed the warning. “I am going home as announced. I am not scared of anything – be it the death threat from terrorists or arrest on arrival,” Musharraf told supporters in Dubai yesterday.
The 69-year-old Musharraf has been on self-exile for over four years. He faces several cases in Pakistan, including the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 when he was president.
But the threat of imprisonment on arrival has receded with three Pakistani courts granting him pre-arrest bail for 10 days. The former president has said the cases against him are unconstitutional and he is not afraid to stand trial.
Musharraf seized power in Pakistan in a coup in 1999. He stepped down as President in 2008. Threatened with impeachment, he went on self-exile in early 2009. Last year, he delayed his homecoming after being threatened with arrest.
The APML has been trying to mobilise support for Musharraf with an advertisement campaign in the Pakistan media.
DND
