As former Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf prepares to return from exile, his wife, Sehba Musharraf, has landed in Islamabad with an “important message” for the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, sources said.
“Sehba Musharraf is here with an important message for Gen. Kayani. She will also evaluate the situation for her husband’s return,” a source close to the family told this newspaper.
Mr Musharraf, who had formed the All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML), had appointed Gen. Kayani in 2007 to succeed him and had quit power in 2008. He then went into self-imposed exile to evade cases back home. The former military ruler has announced he will return from exile on March 23, 2012 to prepare for the general election due in 2013. “It is apparently a private visit but has much official business, more than any other of her (Sehba Musharraf’s) visits to Pakistan,” the source added.
She arrived in Karachi on Friday and then flew to Islamabad to the family’s private residence in Chak Shahzad, where she is said to have overseen repairs to the security system and renovation work.
Sources in the military establishment also said that Sehba Musharraf was carrying a message for Gen. Kayani. A source privy to the matter said Mr Musharraf has sent his wife to discuss a strategy to deal with the fallout of the damaging WikiLeaks cables about the alleged cooperation of the then military top brass with the United States in the war on terror in terms of use of Pakistani air bases and drone attacks. Mr Musharraf has consistently denied any such arrangement.
“She has also been provided Army commandos in keeping with her status as the spouse of a former Army Chief,” the source disclosed, adding that the recent release by the global anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, that there had been an agreement between the two countries over issues at the heart of the breach of Pakistani sovereignty, had left in tatters the military’s reputation as Pakistan’s sole guarantor of territorial integrity. “She (Sehba Musharraf) is likely to seek a convergence on how to deal with the issue as it is likely to hamper the national interest,” said one source.