ISLAMABAD – Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf told his aides in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in recent meetings that he faced no threat from his arrest warrants in Benazir Bhutto assassination case because the British government would never repatriate him to Pakistan.
“Some friends of Musharraf in the All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML)’s marathon meetings held in UAE on March 16 and 17 advised him not to return to the UK for the time being because the Pakistan High Commission had forwarded his arrest warrants to UK’s Foreign Affairs Department, therefore he might face a legal threat in the UK,” said a source.
Musharraf, said the source, responded that he was not threatened while living in the UK because the British government would never hand him over to Pakistani authorities. “Musharraf said that the US, UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia were the foreign guarantors in a deal made between him and the incumbent Pakistan People’s Party government in August 2008.
He said told his party that the PPP government was also not serious about his repatriation and would not take up the matter of his arrest warrants with the British government seriously,” said the source. The source added that Musharraf would leave for the UK on March 20 and would hold a meeting with party members next month in the UAE.
“Musharraf asked APML leaders including Sher Afgan Niazi, Dr Amjad, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Chaudhry Shahbaz, Fawad Chaudhry and Maj General (r) Rashid Qureshi to gear up efforts to expand the party’s base in Pakistan,” the source said.
A source in the Interior Ministry told Pakistan Today that Musharraf could be brought back to Pakistan either through legal extradition or with the help of Interpol. Sher Afgan Niazi told Pakistan Today that APML leaders held two marathon meetings with Musharraf in UAE on March 16 and 17 and discussed issues pertaining to the party’s organisation.
“Musharraf is eager to come home … He will return soon … Musharraf will come when we (APML leaders) give him the go-ahead,” he said.
