Musharraf returns for elections

Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf salutes supporters outside the airport upon his arrival in Karachi on Sunday. Musharraf returned home after more than four years in exile, defying a Taliban death threat to contest historic general elections. Asif Hassan / Agence France-Presse

   

Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf returned home on Sunday after a self-exile of more than four years to take part in the May 11 parliamentary elections, his party said.

A plane from Dubai carrying Musharraf, leaders of his party and media staff landed at 12:45 pm local time at the port city of Karachi, where his supporters accorded him a warm welcome.

The authorities in Karachi canceled permission for a pro-Musharraf rally at the mausoleum of the founder of the nation over security concerns. His party's leaders agreed he could speak to his supporters at Karachi airport.

He had been living in exile in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates since he resigned from his post in August 2008.

Musharraf, 69, had previously announced on several occasions he would return home but repeatedly postponed the plan.

A court in Pakistan on Friday granted protective bail to Musharraf, who had been facing arrest on several grounds.

The 14-day protective bail was granted in response to a constitutional petition submitted to the court by Musharraf's daughter, Ayla Raza Musharraf, on behalf of her father.

An anti-terrorism court had issued an arrest warrant in 2011 for Musharraf in connection with the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In October, a court also issued a warrant for his arrest over the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti in a military operation in August 2006.

Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, has also been charged with ordering a military raid on the Taliban-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad during his term in office.

He dismissed all charges as politically motivated and said in Dubai on Saturday that he would defend himself in court on his return, Xinhua News Agency reported.

"My return is in the interests of Pakistan. The country's future is at stake and there is a need for positive change in the country," Musharraf told a news conference in Dubai ahead of his return.

Far from strife

Musharraf has been far removed from Pakistan's numerous troubles during his exile in London and Dubai, Reuters reported.

Pakistan's military has ruled the nation for more than half of its 66-year history.

The powerful generals have meddled far less in politics than during Musharraf's era.

It remains unclear whether Musharraf will regain influence in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed US ally.

He is unlikely to beat former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom he removed in a military coup and who is believed to be the frontrunner in the election race.

Other contenders include cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who has been delivering speeches for months, hoping to tap into deep public discontent.

Musharraf's most immediate concern may be Pakistan's Taliban, who threatened in a video on Saturday to send suicide bombers and snipers to kill him and send him to "hell".

Musharraf dismissed the threats but a rally he was supposed to hold on Sunday afternoon was canceled. Al-Qaida assassins have tried to kill Musharraf at least three times in the past.

He angered the Taliban and other groups by joining the US War on Terror following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and by later launching a major crackdown on militants.

Defiant of threats

Militants were especially enraged when Musharraf's security forces launched a full-scale attack on Islamabad's sprawling Red Mosque in 2007 after followers of radical clerics running a Taliban-style movement from there refused to surrender.

The government said 102 people were killed in fighting when the complex was stormed.

Musharraf will have just two months to try to persuade voters his political party can deliver what others have not.

The odds are clearly stacked against the former commando who, during the 1965 war with India, leapt into a burning artillery gun to remove shells that would have killed wounded comrades had they burst.

While in power, he infuriated everyone - from the chief justice, whom he sacked, to lawyers who led a movement against him, to clerics.

But Musharraf always held up the economy as one of his successes. Some businessmen are nostalgic for the days when he ruled.

Critics have said he suffers from a "savior complex" and perhaps that is what led him home to face possible dangers.

Xinhua - Reuter