Prepared to take risk of life to return to Pak: Musharraf

Claiming that people of Pakistan need a viable alternative in this hour of crisis, former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has said that he is"prepared to take risk" of his life to return back home from a self-imposed exile.

"Well, yes, I am prepared for the risk. I have to be prepared for the risk," Musharraf told the CNN from Dubai, where he is preparing for his trip back home. He was responding to question that he might face threat to his life when he returns.

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"I feel that the country needs me, and I feel that the country is going down so badly in all socioeconomic elements and from all governance point of view, that it is high time that we bring about another political alternative which can produce a government with the majority of the people, with a mandate of the people who can run Pakistan, instead of doing politics only. And I think I have a role to play there," Musharraf said when asked why he is going back to Pakistan.

The former president said no date has been fixed for his journey yet, but it will be between January 27 and 30. "Well, there is a danger of that. Yes, indeed, there's a possibility of that, absolutely. And when I've decided to goback, I have to take that risk," he said, adding that he very well knows that there is risk to his life as well on return.

"Well, more than myself, my family and my friends, my well-wishers, are worried about that much more than myself. But I have faced such threats all along since I was the president, and that threat will remain now also. I need to make proper security arrangements of my own. And also, I expect the government to give me security as authorised to an ex-president of the country," Musharraf said.

"You take security measures as much as you can, but then 100 per cent security cannot be guaranteed by anyone. So, therefore, an element of risk is always there. And that'swhere I believe in destiny, and that is I believe that we have to leave everything to God Almighty," 68-year-old Musharraf said.

Musharraf headed an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled Pakistan as the chief executive from 1999� and as the president from 2001-08. In the face of impeachment, he resigned on 18 August 2008 and went into self-imposed exile.

He also slammed former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, who is a suspect in the "memogate scandal", saying the ex-diplomat is creating hype and over-blowing the issue with regard to threat to his life.

"I don't think so," Musharraf said when asked if Haqqani is in serious danger of his life."I think, unnecessarily, they are creating a hype and over blowing this, as if everyone is out to kill him or something. That is the not the reality," he said, responding to a question on Haqqani, who in recent interviews has said that he fears threat to his life. "As far as danger to his life is concerned, I don't think that is a real danger," Musharraf added.

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