“I am arriving in Pakistan on March 24th. I need your support,” former President Pervez Musharraf announced via his Facebook page on early Monday. “A senate resolution adopted in January last year is very clear that he should be arrested and prosecuted,” was the response of Senator Raza Rabbani from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). “It is the expression of the will of the lawmakers.” Such is the repulse with which the guardians of Pakistan’s democracy look at the former dictator that Musharraf has been forced to announce dates of return and then subsequently withdraw them many times over. The above mentioned resolution adopted unanimously by the upper house demanded Musharraf’s arrest and the initiation of a treason case against the former dictator who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. The maximum penalty for Musharraf, if charged, is hanging. For once, however, it appears that the former commando is sticking to his guns – perhaps thinking that the caretaker government will be more amenable to his arrival.

But of course he appears to have forgotten that another increasingly strong player in the country: the judiciary, which he so attempted to dispose, and which is a dark horse which has given sufficient hints to suggest that it will issue arrest orders for Musharraf in one of the many cases against him lying before it. One of these is the Lal Masjid Enquiry Commission before which Musharraf has refused to appear. The commission has the power to issue his arrest warrants or seize his properties – meaning that even if he escapes arrest, his party may be decapitated with a lock down of its funds. All that said and done, Musharraf’s party, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) has announced plans for a ‘historic welcome’ for the deposed leader next Sunday in Karachi. “The people of Karachi will receive the APML chief in an unprecedented manner,” a APML apparatchik told a party delegation in Hyderabad. Maybe the APML believes that it can pull of the unexpected.

People’s memories in Pakistan do tend to be short. But the fact is that the country and its people are still suffering the effects of Musharraf’s policies. His consumption-oriented economic policies, relying on trickle down, failed badly. The power crisis, increased corruption in politics, the worsening of the situation in Balochistan and the increase in terrorism, all trace their origins to the Musharraf era. While Musharraf still retains a democratic right to take part in the elections, he must be tried in the cases registered against him. Moreover, it is still hard to answer the question: what is Musharraf returning for? Perhaps, the former dictator shall furnish an answer once he arrives.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013...af-coming-for/