As the noose around his neck tightens, the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf is said to be regretting his decision to return to Pakistan.
According to sources close to the former General, it was his aides in Karachi who assured Musharraf that he would be welcomed by thousands and escape any legal complications. Despite the advice of Rawalpindi colleagues to the contrary, Musharraf chose to heed his Karachi friends, and is paying dearly for it.
After announcing his decision to return, Musharraf was advised by a former spy chief based in UAE to reconsider his decision. Even after his arrival in Karachi, he was sent another friendly travel advisory by the GHQ: “Sir! Stay there instead of flying to Islamabad.” However the former dictator was too smug in his nostalgia for power to accept the possibility of a changed reality in which he had no special relevance to Pakistani politics anymore.
According to a close aide, the reason Musharraf trusted his friends in Karachi was because he had diverted a huge amount of funds to them during his tenure. He was simply expecting that the favour would now be returned. Yet every one of them, including an influential man whom Musharraf referred to as his “adopted son”, abandoned him as soon as he ran into trouble with the law.
The dictates of fate and the fickleness of power might be hard to digest for a man addicted to his sense of entitlement, yet it seems that time is a tough teacher, and the former dictator is in for the ride of a lifetime.