Musharraf won’t come to Pakistan this year: Report

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf won’t be coming to Pakistan from Britain for the launch of his newly-formed party this year, a media report said.

It was earlier decided that Musharraf will come to Pakistan for the launch of his newly-formed party, the All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML), in September.

Daily Times Monday cited sources close to the former president as saying that Musharraf had decided to steer his party from London as its headquarters and he would not come to Pakistan this year because of “some formidable challenges and serious risks he would be exposed to here”.

A team of experts was finalising the manifesto of the newly-formed party that would be launched after Eid-ul Fitr in London as well as in Pakistan, Dubai and the US.

The All-Pakistan Muslim League was founded in Karachi in March 2010.

Sources said Dubai and London were political hubs for exiled or self-exiled politicians and other personalities to meet their supporters and the party office in Dubai would be a special venue for Musharraf to meet his fans.

Musharraf took over the Pakistani government in a bloodless coup in 1999 after dismissing the elected government of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

He ended his decade-long rule and resigned as president in August 2008.