Musharraf to return to Pak on March 23 next year

LAHORE: Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile since 2008, has said he would return home on March 23 next year to lead his party in the 2013 general elections.

Addressing a convention of workers of his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in Lahore via video-conferencing, Musharraf said last night that his party will emerge as a third force in the country's politics.

He alleged that both the PPP and PML-N had failed to deliver and the people's miseries had been compounded during their regimes.

Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile in Dubai and London since leaving Presidency in 2008, said he would return to Pakistan on March 23 next year and asked the government to refrain from creating hurdles in activities organised by his party.

Musharraf had earlier also promised several times that he would return home to contest the 2013 general elections.

"I am going to land in Lahore on the 23rd of March, 2012, if not earlier - but not later," he had told reporters in Dubai last month.