Musharraf raises Rs250 mn in three-hour live “telethon” for Pakistan flood relief

KARACHI - Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has collaborated with a private television channel to appeal for aid and has reportedly garnered pledges of hundreds of millions of rupees for flood relief and rehabilitation work in the country.

Musharraf, participating from London in a three-hour live “telethon” on Dunya TV, appealed for donations, and following a generous response from the viewers, raised a collective pledge upwards of 250 million rupees, the Dawn quoted the news channel, as claiming.

The former president said that only five per cent of the funds collected by Pervez Musharraf Foundation, which, according to him has already been registered in the UK for the flood-affected people, would be spent on overheads.

The people who called up the television show to pledge donations towards the foundation also asked Musharraf about his future plans, to which the retired general replied that he planned to return to Pakistan to take part in the next general election.

Notable among the people who called Musharraf to pledge sizable donations were former ministers Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Ameer Muqam.

Musharraf has decided to return to his homeland before the next election due in 2013 in a bid to “try his luck” in the presidential elections, though Pakistan’s political parties have ridiculed his claim of returning to politics, saying that there is no room for him in the country’s political arena. (ANI)