Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. - File Photo

DAVOS: Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf will “certainly” be arrested if he returns to Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Friday.

“In fact there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him,” Gilani told CNN from the Global Economic Forum in Davos.

“Certainly when he’ll come back, he has to face those charges and certainly be arrested,” he said.

Musharraf announced plans to return from exile in late January and to run in upcoming elections, but his party said he was reassessing those plans when the government warned that if he returned, he faced arrest.

Pakistan’s upper house of Parliament Senate passed a non-binding resolution early this week demanding Musharraf be arrested and tried for treason for unconstitutional acts during his regime. The charges against him are in connection with 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf, who has been living in London & Dubai since resigning in 2008, has denied allegations, arguing that Bhutto had police protection and took unnecessary risks, but a Pakistani court issued a warrant for his arrest.

Separately, Gilani admitted “a lot of challenges” in the war on terrorism, including militancy in the country’s northwest region. “We are fighting for our own selves, for our own survival, because these militants, they have killed 30,000 innocent people, 5,000 brave soldiers,” he said.

The fight against terrorism has caused a “loss of economy,” Gilani said, but investment in the country remains. “Yes, we are fighting a war on extremism and terrorism, and we’re a front-line state, yes, there are a lot of challenges,” he said.

“But it doesn’t mean that there is no investment coming to Pakistan. We have offered very lucrative incentives for investment in Pakistan and there were lot of investment coming to Pakistan.”

Gilani also said people in Pakistan are “bitter” over an attack by Nato forces last November that killed 24 Pakistani troops. “We have paid so much price for the war on terrorism. People should appreciate our struggle.”