DUBAI,Jan28, 2012: Former Pakistan president and chief of the All Pakistan Muslim League, Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf, has delayed his scheduled return to Pakistan between January 27 and 30 till “the present cycle of change in Pakistan is reaches its logical end and the situation is conducive for his return,” a senior party office-bearer said.“This is not the right time to go back,” APML Secretary General Barrister Mohammed Ali Saif announced at a crowded Press conference late on Friday evening in Dubai in the presence of the party’s core committee members. He said that Musharraf’s return on March 23, 2012, which was announced in May 2011, would now depend on the political situation in Pakistan at that time, but Musharraf would definitely return to Pakistan before the elections, once they are announced, and would take part in the elections. Barrister Saif said that an emergency meeting of the core committee of the APML took place on Friday to deliberate on the question of its president’s return to Pakistan on January 29. “The members of the committee were unanimous that after January 8 when Musharraf made an announcement at a public meeting in Karachi that he would return to Pakistan at the end of January, the political circumstances have changed dramatically in the country,” he said. From January 9 onwards, the political developments took a new turn. There are cases in the Supreme Court and the reaction of the political parties in government and in opposition led to change in political scenario. He referred to the memo case which he said had caused tension, and the NRO case in which presidential immunity will have an impact. He said that the committee took cognizance of the changed circumstances which were also considered at the party’s regional and district levels. The finalised recommendations were submitted to Musharraf which proposed that he should delay his return to Pakistan keeping in view the changed political scenario in the country. Barrister Saif said that the committee was of the view that if Musharraf were to stick to his earlier announcement regarding his return to Pakistan, it will be beneficial to his political opponents in the country. “The government which has bogged down in court cases and its failure both in the economic and political fields, would try to wriggle out of this situation by deviating the attention of the people of Pakistan from the main issues to the non issues,” he said. The political parties are engaged in a tussle with each other and there is an institutional conflict, he said.
