The former Pakistani military ruler, General (retired) Pervez Musharraf, on Sunday announced through a video address that he would be returning home between January 27 and 30 to launch his political career despite facing arrest in the case of assassination of the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.
His announcement came at a rally organised by the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) near the Quaid-e-Azam Mazar in the city attended by hundreds of people who implored him to return to Pakistan.
Winding up his address at the party's first big rally, Gen. Musharraf, living in Dubai and London in self-exile since April 2008, said he was not scared of anyone and would return to Karachi.
Gen. 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.
The retired general 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 Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told reporters in Islamabad on Saturday that Gen. Musharraf would be arrested on his return as an anti-terrorism court has declared him a “proclaimed offender.” There was no need for any warrant to make the arrest, Mr. Ali said.
