Declaring the country’s condition as serious, which direly needed a change, former president and All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) President General (r) Pervez Musharraf announced on Sunday that he will return to the country in January instead of March.
Addressing a 32-minute long video conference from London, the former president focused on issues such as memogate scandal, the president’s illness, economy, destruction of profitable state-owned organisations, terrorism and the Mohmand incident and said that the panacea for Pakistan’s prevailing challenges did not lie in undemocratic initiatives and incorporating the military into politics would be very fatal for the country and the people.
Musharraf said that the ISI and air force were guarantors of Pakistan’s solidarity and sovereignty, adding that some conspiring elements were making conspiracies through the memo issue to defame the ISI and security forces. The former president said that he will launch a campaign on his return with the help of the masses to counter threats facing the country. He said that enemies of Pakistan knew that they could achieve the target of weakening Pakistan only through weakening the army and ISI, adding that it was unfortunate that some Pakistanis were knowingly or unknowingly doing the dirty work of foreign powers to damage the image of the army and ISI.
The APML president said that the NATO incursion at Mohmand Agency’s check post was a dangerous omen but the federal government and the people should not handle the issue emotionally but logically.
He said, “The federal government and people should definitely get an answer from NATO for martyring 24 soldiers boldly but they should not handle the issue emotionally”. Musharraf said that the ISI was fighting a war with the local and foreign enemies of Pakistan and it was very good at confronting enemies of the state, adding that the ISI’s professional standards could be matched with the CIA, Mossad and Raw, as the agency with meager resources was countering its much bigger enemies.
The former president said that he would initiate dialogue with extremist elements operating inside the country. Commenting on performance of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in their erstwhile regimes, Musharraf said that both parties remained in power twice but delivered nothing to the masses except challenges and shortfalls. The APML president urged the people to cast their votes beyond affiliations of caste and creed, linguistic, religious and provincial prejudices to steer the country out of crises and challenges. Musharraf said that state institutions were in a state of constant confrontation while the president was out of the country under mysterious circumstances, as no citizen knew whether the president was suffering from some physical, mental or political problem.
Earlier, APML Secretary General Barrister Saif, APML Punjab President Zahid Sarfraz, Ahmed Raza Kasuri and APML Spokesman Fawad Chaudhry also addressed the event. This was the first successful APML moot in Lahore as compared to previous shows. APML leaders managed participation of party activists from various districts of the province to make the show successful. Some participants of the Pakistan Defence Council moot, who were passing by Nasir Bagh, venue of the APML public meeting, chanted anti-Musharraf slogans but no untoward incident took place.
Musharraf to be back in January
