Musharraf: Will return when time is right

LONDON - Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, currently on a lecture tour of Europe, has said he will return home when the time is right.

I will surely return to Pakistan. The timing, however, is of essence, he said on the Facebook social networking site while replying to questions.

His return was mainly dependent on the domestic environment, Musharraf added.

Musharraf had stepped down last year under an elaborate deal worked out between Saudi Arabia, Britain and the US under which the Pakistani government committed not to initiate any action against him for his omissions and commissions in office 1999-2008.

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz reminded the Pakistani leadership of this in September and urged it to abide by the agreement. Abdullah, who played a key role in that agreement, conveyed the message to visiting Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik during his nearly one-hour meeting with him.

That, however, was not the end of Musharraf’s travails as in November a Pakistani court directed that its order summoning the former president in a treason case be published in newspapers in London, where he was based.

A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah issued the directive while hearing a petition seeking

the registration of a treason case against Musharraf for subverting the constitution by declaring an emergency Nov 3, 2007.

The order came after the court was informed that the summons could not be served as Musharraf was currently in London.

The court had originally issued the summons in April on a petition filed by Moulvi Iqbal Haider of the Awami Himayat Tehrik, an insignificant political party.

However, going by Musharraf’s track record, he is unlikely to respond to the summons even if it is published in a newspaper. In July, he had ignored a Supreme Court summons while it was hearing a petition urging that the emergency be declared illegal, which the court subsequently accepted.