World - Musharraf to stay at home

ISLAMABAD: Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as President of Pakistan on Monday, has told supporters he is not going anywhere out of the country, and intends to stay on here and “relax.”

Dismissing reports that he was looking for exile destinations abroad, the retired General Musharraf told a group of parliamentarians from the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) who called on him on Wednesday that he wants to continue living in Pakistan.

A Mukesh fan


“He said ‘I am going to be around, my house [in Chak Shahzad on the capital’s outskirts] will be ready in three months, I will move in there, smoke my cigars, play bridge with my friends, relax’,” PML (Q) secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Sayed told The Hindu. And no, General Musharraf was not listening to the Rafi song “Udh jaa re panchchi, ab des hua begana” on his first day of retirement, as reported by The News.

Mr. Sayed said when he teased him about that, General Musharraf told him the report could not be more incorrect, as he is a Mukesh fan and does not like Rafi that much.

The former President was dressed in shirt sleeves and khakis, and “looking very relaxed,” Mr. Sayed said.

Media reports have said he will leave the country soon, perhaps under the pretext of going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and from there, perhaps go the U.S. where his son and brother live.

“I don’t know if he is going on a holiday somewhere, but he was extremely clear that he was going to stay on in Pakistan,” said Marvi Memon, a PML (Q) National Assembly member, who was also in the group that went to see him at his official home in Rawalpindi. “He said he was going to relax for a while.”

Ms. Memon said around 30 PML (Q) parliamentarians paid a “courtesy call” on General Musharraf, the creator of the party in 2001 with hacked out chunks of Nawaz Sharif ‘s Pakistan Muslim League (N) and defectors from the Pakistan People’s Party. Mr. Sayed called it a “visit to express solidarity” with General Musharraf, and denying reports the PML (Q) had asked him to take over the leadership of the party, said the parliamentarians had advised him to keep away from politics.

“Our advice to him was also that he should take a back seat. We too would live to move on. The Musharraf era is over, and the post-Musharraf era has begun,” said Mr. Sayed. “The PML (Q) would live to play its role as a robust vibrant opposition, and Pervez Musharraf should play the role of Citizen Musharraf. He should enjoy himself in the surroundings of Islamabad.”

The PML (Q) leader said a Nixon model-agreement had been clinched for the former President — “resignation, no impeachment, no charges, no case, no prosecution” — and the guarantor “lives within a 10-mile radius of Islamabad,” hinting that it was the Rawalpindi-headquartered Pakistan Army and more specifically, Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Meanwhile, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islami, and Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan said there were no differences in the ruling coalition on the judges’ issue and it would be resolved “amicably with a consensus” by this weekend.