In an appearance at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, Musharraf also dismissed any contention that the Inter Services Intelligence was protecting bin Laden, saying if it were, the ISI would have used bin Laden as "a bargaining chip," and whisked him away if they knew he was about to be killed by the elite American Navy SEALS within Pakistan in the garrison town of Abbottabad.
Asked by Wilson Center president Jane Harmon, a former nine-term US lawmaker, if he bore any responsibility for the negligence or the complicity when bin Laden moved to Abbottabad since "most people believe the residence was built and constructed" during his presidency, Musharraf said, "Whether one believes it or not, let me say with confidence, I did not know."
"So, therefore, I believe if he was there for five years -- and two years of that five years was during my time -- I confidently and surely say that it was not complicity because I am sure of one thing, that I didn't know, whether one believes or not," he said.
Musharraf said with regard to speculation that the ISI may have constructed the house for bin Laden, "I mean, if we are to hide somebody, do we have to construct a house for him? There are hundreds of homes available all over to put him in. And, secondly, if he was to be put there, wouldn't there be some guard and some security that he does not leave the place -- such a valuable target, such a valuable personality, shouldn't one use it as a bargaining chip?"
Musharraf said when he says he was totally in the dark about bin Laden hiding out in Pakistan, that didn't mean that the Army or the ISI was hiding it from him. "No, a 100 times, not at all, not possible, because I am from the Army. They are my people. If at all at the high, top level, there was some directions to protect or hide Osama bin Laden and not tell me, the second and third-tier would have come and told me because I had been with them. Maybe I fought wars with them or action with them. Maybe they were my students in colleges, maybe they served under me. They were all with me. So, how's it possible that I wouldn't know? That they wouldn't tell me?"
Earlier, in his remarks to a packed audience which filled the Wilson Center auditorium and two other over-flow rooms, Musharraf said the reason there was so much public antipathy towards the US in Pakistan was because Washington had "ditched" Pakistan, and established a strategic partnership with its "enemy" during the cold war years, India.
'Till 1989 -- for 42 years, from 1947 to 1989 -- we were aligned with the West in the cold war period, when there was a bi-polar world. We were with the US and the West -- strategic allies."
Musharraf recalled, "We fought the Soviets for 10 years along with the US -- everything was happening from Pakistan. There was no such great antipathy against the US till 1989."
But, he said, in 1989-90, "The United States decides to change its strategic orientation. They abandon the place and they have a strategic policy shift against Pakistan, tilted towards India. So, the ally of 42 years is put under sanctions and may I venture to say, the enemy of these 42 years -- because India was always in the eastern camp with the Soviet Union -- became the strategic ally."
"This was seen in the public of Pakistan as Pakistan having been used and ditched and betrayed," he said.
Muharraf also slammed Washington's nuclear policy toward Pakistan, which he said was discriminatory, while it was a case of "appeasement, strategic cooperation with India, and very negative against Pakistan. This is seen as partisan, this is seen as animosity against Pakistan's national sensitivity, national interest."
Pakistan's nuclear capability, Musharraf argued, "is the guarantee of our integrity and security. It is the pride of every Pakistani. So, anyone casting a negative eye towards our nuclear potential is seen very negatively in the public eye."
Musharraf said it was imperative that the US and Pakistan "restore trust. Confrontation would be most unwise."
The US, for its part, he said, "must show concern to our sensitivities," including what he argued should be a "more balanced treatment of Pakistan and India and understanding that Pakistan's nuclear capability is because of its existential threat, may I say, like Israel."
He also claimed that even though he was living in exile, there was an upswing of his popularity in Pakistan, and that the people were once again hankering for him to come and take over.
Currently, he said, "There is a leadership vacuum in Pakistan. No leader and not one of the two main political parties, I personally feel, is capable of delivering to Pakistan."
Thus, he said, the political status quo "has to be broken," and predicted that the next election in Pakistan in 2013, "to use Saddam Hussein's expression, is going to be the mother of all elections."
Musharraf said he would definitely return to Pakistan to throw his hat into the ring on March 23, 2012.
