Musharraf to return to Pakistan this month

Karachi, Jan 8: Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf on Sunday announced that he will be returning home between January 27 and 30 to launch his political career despite facing arrest in the assassination case of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

His announcement came at an impressive rally organised by the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) near the Quaid-e-Azam Mazar in the city which was attended by hundreds of people who kept on imploring him to return to Pakistan.

Winding up his video address to the crowd at the party's first big rally, Musharraf, currently living in Dubai and London on self-exile since April 2008, said he was not scared of anyone and would return to Karachi between January 27 to 30th.

Musharraf, 68, said that he would contest the next general elections from Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

"I am living comfortably abroad and I have no problems but I am coming back for the Pakistani people because now is the time for change. People are fed up with the old faces," he said.

"They are trying to scare me but I am not a scared person and I am coming back to face the situation," he added to the cheering crowd that included large number of families and women.

Musharraf was declared a fugitive last year by the Rawalpindi-based court conducting the trial of those charged with involvement in the December 2007 assassination of Bhutto.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told reporters in Islamabad yesterday that Musharraf will be arrested on returning to Pakistan as an anti-terrorism court has declared him a "proclaimed offender" or a fugitive.

He said Musharraf is a "proclaimed offender" and there is no need of any warrant for making the arrest.

PTI