Musharraf fearing the welcome he’ll get
That General Musharraf has decided to put off his homecoming hardly comes as a surprise since he has been deferring his plans to return from self-exile on one pretext or the other. The latest excuse is that his party’s executive committee and ‘‘friends and supporters” have advised him to stay away following repeated threats from the ruling leadership.
The announcement in this regard by the Secretary General of the All Pakistan Muslim League coincided with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s statement that Musharraf would be arrested on his arrival because “there have been murder charges against him…and the Supreme Court has already given a verdict against him”. The PM simply reiterated his government’s decision in his interview with the BBC during his current visit to Davos.
Musharraf had also acknowledged in an interview broadcast earlier this month that he would be in danger in Pakistan. But if he feels endangered, it is not without reason. There are court warrants for his arrest in connection with the assassinations of Nawab Akbar Bugti and Benazir Bhutto. And he must also be aware of the deep-rooted hatred against him for the excesses committed by intelligence agencies in Balochistan on his watch during his nine-year rule. There have been hundreds of cases of mysterious disappearances which remained untraced despite repeated orders by the apex court. The innocent citizens kidnapped from across the country on the mere suspicion of their links with the terrorist networks were subsequently handed over to Americans for interrogation.
No matter what he says, the former president’s decision to defer his homecoming has more to do with his inability to secure iron-clad guarantees from the world leaders for his safe return to Pakistan. Perhaps he has not learnt one of the most important lessons of history: Despots and dictators are abandoned by their foreign masters once they lose their utility.
Musharraf’s dilemma is that his tiny support base in politics is also eroding faster than expected. Those who were once considered his diehard fans have now started quitting the party. That’s how other ambitious generals were consigned to the pages of history in the past.
