Saudi royals pave way for Musharraf’s return

KABUL’s former military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf is all poised to return home today from a four-year exile, thanks to the Saudi royal family’s intercession with his political foes, a media report said on Sunday.

At closed-door meetings with Saudi royals, top opposition leader Mian Nawaz Sharif agreed not to hamper the retired general’s homecoming, The Express Tribune quoted a close aide to Musharraf as saying. The ex-general is due to fly into the port city of Karachi from Dubai in the afternoon.

Pakistan army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, recently visited Saudi Arabia to discuss the former president’s return and his participation in the May parliamentary elections. The paper said Musharraf also met Saudi rulers separately to seek their help.

A day earlier, the Pakistani Taliban threatened to send Musharraf to hell on his return home. A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said the organisation had set up squads of suicide bombers and snipers to kill the retired general.

Ehsanullah Ehsan said: “Suicide bombers are being trained and assigned to assassinate him.” Adnan Rasheed, who took part in a botched life attempt on Musharraf, has been tasked with training the suicide squads.

On Sunday morning, Musharraf reached Dubai airport to depart for Karachi. Before embarking on his flight, he told reporters he was aware of the TTP threat. However, the retired general asserted he was not scared of militants.

PAN Monitor/mud

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