Former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday deferred his plan to return home after warnings from the government that he would be immediately arrested on his arrival in the country.
Musharraf, who has been on a self-imposed exile in Dubai, had insisted that he would return at the end of the month to prepare for general elections.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik had on Wednesday said that Musharraf would be arrested on his return as he was a proclaimed offender and an accused in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
Apparently, it was not only the threat of arrest that influenced his decision. Musharraf has also received multiple threats to his life, including from Balochistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for the killing of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti. He has also been on the Taliban’s hit list.
Musharraf seemingly chickened out after army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani reportedly turned down his request to use the incumbent’s influence to prevent his arrest in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
General Kayani reportedly also refused Musharraf’s request for extra security to spearhead his politics in Pakistan. The military was clearly not inclined to support a former chief’s political gamble.
