Musharraf returns to Pakistan

Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf returns Sunday after more than four years in exile to contest the country’s historic general elections on May 11. Musharraf seized power in a coup as army chief in 1999 and left the country in August 2008, when Asif Ali Zardari was elected president after the murder of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007 is blamed on Musharraf, with a 2010 United Nations report accusing his government of failing to provide her with adequate protection. But Musharraf points to the Pakistani Taliban as behind the killing. Musharraf is wanted by the courts over Bhutto’s death, the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a Baluch rebel leader in the southwest, and for the 2007 sacking and illegal arrest of judges. The Pakistani Taliban also threatened to dispatch suicide bombers to assassinate Musharraf. As ruler, Musharraf escaped three Al-Qaeda assassination attempts. He became a target for Islamist extremists after making Pakistan a key US ally in the “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks.

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