DUBAI: Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf has said that he will come back to Pakistan to face the courts when ousted premier Nawaz Sharif and former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry leave the country.
“I am waiting for the current political environment to change,” he said.
In a TV interview, Musharraf said that he is neither in favour of martial law nor fresh elections in the country in the immediate future— stressing, instead, on the need to establish an interim government in order to ensure checks and balances and to set the house in order in different sectors.
Without explicitly naming anyone, Musharraf said that there are a couple of politicians and technocrats who are capable of running the interim government, if it is formed. He said when he took over in 1999, he did not know most of the people in his cabinet, but all of them helped him “put the house in order”.
He said that there are chances of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan to succeed in elections in Punjab and form the government.
Regarding reports that he was being urged to lead the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Musharraf categorically stated: “I would be stupid to lead the MQM as I am a national figure and would not play a role at an ethnic level in Karachi.” He said he has no sympathy with MQM and PSP and is only concerned about Mohajirs and the people of Pakistan.
“Let us go for a paradigm shift in our politics, away from ethnicity— and the only place we can start Pakistaniat is from Karachi, where people of all nationalities reside,” Musharraf emphasised.
The former president said a third political force is needed in Pakistan to defeat Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), otherwise, PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari will continue to run Sindh. He said Nawaz Sharif and Zardari have taken Pakistan on a wrong political course.
He said that as a proud Pakistani, he wants Pakistan to have pro-active diplomacy and the country should not surrender before anyone.
He defended his stance of supporting the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which has been declared a terrorist organisation by India— and said that India is also supporting the RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav.
He further stated that New Delhi is refusing to abide by the UN resolution for a plebiscite in Kashmir and the US is refusing to accept the UN resolution for shifting its embassy to Jerusalem. He said that if these countries are not accepting the UN resolutions, there is no reason for Pakistan to submit to them.
Musharraf supported the briefing given by Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to the Senate and said that under the prevailing circumstances in the country, the COAS has done the right thing to clarify the situation.
Asked whether he knew General Bajwa and former COAS Gen Raheel Sharif before their taking over as army chiefs, Musharraf said he had personal and family relations with General Raheel but had never personally met Gen Bajwa.
