Musharraf delays return
Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has delayed his return home, the head of his party said yesterday after repeated threats by the country's leadership that he would be arrested upon arrival.
"He finally decided today that he would accept the recommendations" of the executive committee of the All Pakistan Muslim League party to delay his return, party secretary general Mohammed Ali Saif told reporters.
Friends and supporters had urged Musharraf to put off an imminent homecoming after Islamabad said he would be arrested if he returned from more than three years of self-imposed exile in London and Dubai.
Musharraf had promised to fly home to contest general elections just as Pakistan's government sank deeper into a major crisis, squeezed by the military and the judiciary.
His pledge met with repeated threats of his arrest, most recently by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani who, speaking to CNN earlier Friday, assured that Musharraf would be "certainly" arrested if he flew home.
Musharraf faces two court warrants for his arrest in connection with the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti, a rebel leader in the southwest, and the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto after her own homecoming.
In an interview broadcast on BBC radio earlier this month, Musharraf acknowledged he would be in danger in Pakistan.
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