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Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf speaks during media talks in Islamabad.—Reuters
The former president will be the first high profile Pakistani to visit India after Mumbai terrorist attacks which shook the world in November last year.
A close aide of the former general claimed that he would keep his tone aggressive during his lectures, interviews and meetings in India.
This year's theme of the conclave is 'Challenges of Change'. The conclave's website says several renowned personalities like Dominique De Villepin, Garry Kasparov, Dalai Lama, Omar Abdullah, Pranab Mukherjee, Priyanka Chopra and Shah Rukh Khan are among the speakers.
According to Pervez Musharraf's aide, the former general would also visit prestigious Aligarh University for a lecture.
In an informal chat with Dawn last month, the former general had vowed to take on Indians in their own homeland. But it is to be seen how well he will face the bashing of Indian media and intelligentsia.
Many people still remember the Agra Summit of July 2001. Though it was an inconclusive summit between India and Pakistan, but General Musharraf had throughout been in the media glare.
His critics, especially Former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, blame him for initiating the Kargil misadventure against India, in 1999. He continues to be a controversial personality for his many decisions like the imposition of emergency in November 2007.
Despite facing the ire from his bitter political rivals the former general, who still occupies the army house, is enjoying the company of his new pets.
In a latest photograph, shared with Dawn, the former general is seen playing with his German Shepherd while himself wearing a tracksuit.
'It's an interesting transition from cuddly Russian Poodles to the ferocious German Shepherd that signifies the change Musharraf underwent from a reluctant coup-maker to an all-powerful dictator,' observes a senior journalist who knows Musharraf for quite some time.
