International

Musharraf Shows Willingness to Contest Pak Elections

Self-exile former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has expressed his willingness to contest elections as it will give him the ‘legitimacy he never had’ during his nine-year rule, reported PTI.

“I love my country and I would do anything for Pakistan,” the former Pakistani President was quoted as saying, hinting at his possible return to national politics.

Musharraf was forced to quit last year and he’s been out of the country since, being non-active in politics.

“I have to come through the political process, through the process of elections. But I think it’s very good – it’s very good because I think I will have that legitimacy which I never had,” he was quoted saying in a meeting at the Chatham House think-tank in London on Monday evening.

“For Pakistan one would be prepared to do anything. However, it is for the people of Pakistan who need to decide. I’m a civilian now, I’m not a military man, I cannot take over anything,” Musharraf was quoted as saying in a reference to his seizure of power in 1999 when he ousted the elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Nevertheless, he did not say anything about whether he would return to Pakistan to face trial over his 2007 detention of judges as he attempted to cling to power.

Musharraf had imposed a state of emergency and sacked 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the Supreme Court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.

Musharraf now lives in a three-bedroom flat behind the ‘shisha bars’ and ‘kebab joints’ of London’s Arabic quarter. But security remains tight.

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