Musharraf to launch political party on October 1

HONG KONG: Former president Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday he would launch a new party on October 1, as the retired general plots a return to the frontlines of the country's turbulent politics.

Musharraf also accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai of lacking “legitimacy” but urged the West to stay the course against the Taliban and not to abandon the restive region.

“I'm going to declare a party on October 1... We have to bring about a new political culture in Pakistan,” he told reporters in Hong Kong after addressing an annual investors' forum organised by the CLSA brokerage.

The 67-year-old Musharraf, who lives in self-imposed exile in London, shrugged off the threat of possible legal action arising from his years of military rule of Pakistan.

“There are elements opposed to me, political elements, and they are the ones who engineer these cases. One has to face that. I'm very confident nothing can happen (on his eventual return home),” he said.

Musharraf, who plans to stand for parliament at the next general election in 2013, did not say where he would launch his new party —called the All Pakistan Muslim League.

But reports in Pakistan have said the October 1 event will take place in London.

“I'm totally against the system where it becomes a family domain in all political parties. The essence of democracy is not there in Pakistan,” he said in Hong Kong.

He had a dismal relationship with Karzai, who regained power last year in an election that was widely decried as fraudulent.

“There must be a legitimate government in Afghanistan... He does not have that legitimacy,” Musharraf told the CLSA forum.

In contrast, the former military leader heaped praise on US General David Petraeus, the commander of some 150,000 foreign soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.

“I have faith in General Petraeus —he is a great commander and he can do well in Afghanistan,” Musharraf told the conference.

But with US President Barack Obama planning a troop drawdown from mid-2011, Musharraf warned that abandoning Afghanistan would “be playing into the hands of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda”, and said “quitting is not an option”.

“The whole world is against the Taliban. So why can't we win? We can win and will win. But we will suffer casualties... No one is analysing the effect of abandoning the region on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the world.”

Musharraf also criticised US drone strikes early Wednesday. Such strikes were a “violation” of Pakistan's sovereignty, he said.

“The sensitivity of the people of Pakistan is that no outside force should cross (its) border.”