KARACHI, Nov 1: Office-bearers of the Pervez Musharraf-led All-Pakistan Muslim League announced here on Tuesday that the party would hold a public meeting in Hyderabad on Nov 12.

Speaking at a press conference in a hotel, APML vice presidents Dr Mujtaba Khan and retired brigadier Haris Nawaz also said that Gen Musharraf might end his self-imposed exile and return to Pakistan even before March 23, 2012.

Criticising the PPP-led government’s policies, Dr Mujtaba painted a bleak picture of the present economy and said the government was surviving on printing banknotes which policy had cost the people dearly as inflation had gone sky high. He said when Gen Musharraf quit the dollar was worth Rs58 whereas it was around Rs90 now. He also compared vegetable prices, which he said had gone up by at least three times since the Musharraf era.

“If the country has to be saved, the economy would have to be improved,” he said.

Referring to the governance crisis in the country, he quoted the Transparency International and said the government had pushed Pakistan even below Somalia.

Dr Mujtaba said the government’s credibility had gone so low that despite appeals by the president and the prime minister to international donor agencies for financial aid for the flood affected, there was no encouraging response from them. He claimed that in the current hopeless situation it was Pervez Musharraf who alone could deliver and save the country from further ignominy. He said the recent rallies organisded by the Tehrik-i-Insaf, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the PML-N were all big ones but rallies could not solve the problems facing the nation.

He quoted nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan as having said that the Musharraf era was better than the period of the present government.

Dr Mujtaba said Pervez Musharraf would return to Pakistan by March 23, 2012 come what may.

Before responding to questions, Dr Mujtaba termed the journalists biased against the retired general. And when he found it hard to answer questions about the policies of the Musharraf government in relation to handing over of Pakistanis to the Americans, setting off of price increases through Ogra and Nepra, huge losses caused to Pakistan Steel, PIA and Railways, the APML leaders abruptly announced that they would take the last question, and would have more interaction with the media later.