“Civil governments in Pak have never performed”: Musharraf

WASHINGTON - All civil governments in the history of Pakistan have failed to deliver to the people and to the state, former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Musharraf said, “The important thing for an elected government is to deliver to the people and to the state. If that is not happening, that is the problem in Pakistan.”

“Unfortunately the civil governments have never performed - and I repeat, never performed. In its history, they have never,” he added.

Commenting on why a former coup leader should be welcomed at all into the democratic process, Musharraf said, “Because of our performance. Today on the political horizon in Pakistan, one is the government, or People’s Party, which is functioning at this moment. The other alternative is Nawaz Sharif. Now, he has been tested and tried twice before and failed both the times.”

“As far as I’m concerned, we ran Pakistan for nine years. I didn’t leave Pakistan because Pakistan was not doing well socioeconomically. Each and every socioeconomic factor was on an upsurge. So I left because of certain problems of political nature…” he added.

The APML leader, who is seeking power in Pakistan again, said that he would return there “before the next election,” adding that he has to “create a certain political environment” for himself and his political party before he goes back.

He said that he would face all charges at the moment, adding that presently there is no case whatsoever in the courts of Pakistan against him.

When asked if he was willing to return without any assurance that there will not be a case against him, Musharraf said, “Now, certainly in Pakistan we understand the realities on ground - I do - that there will be some political maneuverings. And for political reasons cases may be initiated against me. If that a fact(ph), we’ll fight those in the courts. And those who are saying that cases will be initiated, I would like to initiate cases against them, actually, of corruption, which -like Nawaz Sharif, who is saying all this.”

Commenting on the host’s remarks that Musharraf himself came in on the shoulders of the military and thus one might ask why not just have another military coup if he was not happy with how things were going in Pakistan, the former president said, “Well, no, I don’t think I came on the shoulder. I was a military chief(ph) itself(ph), so I didn’t have to come on the shoulders of the military. I was the military myself.” (ANI)