KARACHI, (Reuters) – Pakistan’s former President, Pervez Musharraf, returned home yesterday after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest elections despite the possibility of arrest and death threats from the Taliban.
Musharraf hopes to regain influence so that his party can win seats in the general election scheduled for May 11, when he will face fierce competition, including from the man he ousted in a military takeover.
“People said I would not come. Where are those people now? People were trying to scare me. I only fear Allah, no one else,” Musharraf said at Karachi’s airport, as more than 1,000 supporters cheered.
The former army general, who seized power in a 1999 coup, resigned in 2008 when his allies lost a vote and a new government threatened him with impeachment. He left the South Asian nation a year later.
