Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar has said that the leadership of the Pakistan Army is of the opinion that ailing former president Pervez Musharraf should be allowed to return to Pakistan in light of his illness.
The military spokesperson gave this statement on Tuesday during an interview on a private TV channel. “In such a situation the institution and leadership’s stance is that Pervez Musharraf should return,” he said.
He revealed during the interview that while the military believed that the former military dictator should return to Pakistan, the final call on his return would be made by his family.
Praying for Musharraf’s recovery, the DG ISPR said, “We have contacted his family. Once his family responds, we can make the required arrangements.”
Meanwhile, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government had been overthrown by Musharraf in 1999, tweeted on Tuesday that he believed that Musharraf should be able to come back to Pakistan to be with his loved ones, and urged the government to facilitate his return.
میری پرویز مشرف سے کوئی ذاتی دشمنی یا عناد نہیں۔ نہیں چاہتا کہ اپنے پیاروں کے بارے میں جو صدمے مجھے سہنا پڑے، وہ کسی اور کو بھی سہنا پڑیں۔ ان کی صحت کے لیے اللّہ تعالی سے دعاگو ہوں۔ وہ واپس آنا چاہیں تو حکومت سہولت فراہم کرے۔
— Nawaz Sharif (@NawazSharifMNS) June 14, 2022
Earlier, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif had said on Saturday that in view of Musharraf’s ill health, there should be no obstacle for him to return home. He had added that past events should not be allowed to be hindered in this regard.
A day before that, Musharraf’s family took to his social media to clarify that he had not been placed on ventilator, as some rumors had been suggesting.
Musharraf’s family first broke news of his illness in 2018, when they announced that he was suffering from a rare disease called amyloidosis.
The party’s Overseas President Afzaal Siddiqui had said that Musharraf’s condition had “weakened his nervous system”. At the time he was being treated in London.
Either Pakistanis have short memory or they like to throw sanity into the wind. Musharraf is no soldier, he specialized in several misadventures that cost Pakistan lives, resources, territory and pride. It was during his tenure as a dictator the pillars of Pakistani democracy were irreplaceably damaged. He lead the charge. He was sentenced to death by the state, but he was allowed to abscond. He successfully engineered a kangaroo court to overturn the death sentence and was enjoying “life” in Dubai and London. Leave alone repentance for his gross actions Musharraf has not showed an iota of remorse.
While we are at it, let us give him a hero’s welcome, a 21 gun salute and when he dies, give him a national sendoff and bury him next to Jinnah. Dreams and Nightmares, no one in Pakistan knows the difference.