KARACHI, Jan 8: Former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf announced here on Sunday that he would return to the country between Jan 27 and 30 and land in Karachi. He also said he would contest election from Chitral.

Mr Musharraf, who is chief of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), made the announcement in his telephonic address from Dubai to the first public meeting organised by his party in the city.

The meeting was held in the ground adjacent to Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum where Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf had held its ‘tsunami rally’ on Dec 25.

Although his decision was hailed by a cheering crowd waving party flags, political analysts are of the opinion that it will add to political commotion in the country because there are warrants of arrest for him on charges that he failed to provide adequate security to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007.

His arrest may aggravate the tense relations between the army and President Asif Ali Zardari over the memo scandal.

Gen (retd) Musharraf, who was chief of the army during the last Nawaz Sharif government and took over power in a 1999 coup, has been living abroad, mostly in London and Dubai, since stepping down in 2008.

“Despite attempts to scare me off by instituting baseless cases against me, I am coming to Pakistan. We will face those cases in court,” he said.

The APML chief said elections were approaching and people had an opportunity to decide whether they would like to vote for already tested parties and their old leaders or wanted a change.

He said Bengalis and people who had come from the former East Pakistan were like other Pakistanis and pledged to issue national identity cards and passports to them.

He said progress had been made by the country from Chitral to Karachi during his “first innings”. He said Karachi was a “city of all of us” and an “engine of progress of Pakistan”. Terming the progress of Karachi the progress of Sindh, he did not fail to praise the MQM, its former nazim Mustafa Kamal and Governor Ishratul Ibad for implementation of development projects.

He said during his regime trains were running on schedule and new trains were being introduced, there were employment opportunities, the country got rid of the IMF and investment was coming from abroad, Pakistanis were treated with and there was a reversal of brain drain.

Gen (retd) Musharraf said he wasn’t coming home for his own sake because he was happily living abroad and in Pakistan he would have to face ‘baseless’ cases. But he wanted to return home because of his commitment to Pakistan, he said.

“No one knows more than me what ought to be done to steer the country out of the present crisis, bring prosperity to the people, generate employment, bring prices under control and rid people of their misery.”

He said he had decided to return because of the perilous situation in Pakistan where prices of essential items like flour, pulses, sugar, oil and ghee were four to five times more than when he was in power.

He said it was being heard for the first time that trains were being discontinued and PIA was sinking. Over the past three years, the country has been the brink of collapse, the IMF has returned, terrorism is at its peak and people with resources are going abroad.

He said some religious elements who were indulging in terrorism with suicide attacks did not deserve to be called Muslims.Mr Musharraf said some political elements were encouraging such people.

They were visiting Balochistan and conspiring against him by involving him in the murder of Baloch leader Nawab Bugti, he said.

Terming the Baloch and Pakhtuns of Balochistan as brave and patriotic people, he said they were victims of backwardness. He claimed that his government had put the province on the road to development and had achieved more than what had been done in previous 50 years.

Gen (retd) Musharraf said he had helped 7,000 Kalpar Bugtis to return to their homes and opened coal mines in Marri area which had brought prosperity to Bugtis and Marris.

He said he had been and would remain an enemy of those who burnt the national flag and attacked Punjabis and Hazaras, but he was prepared to lay down his life for the progress and prosperity of Balochistan.