The Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement will certainly have the majority in the polls, said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Coverage: Pakistan Votes
In a rare interview to Jemima Khan, former cricketer Imran Khan's ex-wife, in Independent on the eve of the historic polls, Musharraf said he was not sure of forming a government though the parties would get a majority.
During the interview, Musharraf said he was deeply hurt by Jemima Khan's protest against him on January 28 along with a 2,000-strong mob outside 10 Downing Street where Musharraf discussed democracy with Gordon Brown.
"I was disappointed. Very disappointed,' he said. "I was disappointed because you ought to be knowing our environment ... what Pakistanis are like ... what is our society. Well, it's acceptable if a person has never visited Pakistan and doesn't know Pakistan to have ideal views. But I thought you ought to be knowing what Pakistan is ... This is not an ideal society," Musharraf said in the interview.
When quizzed about the national reconciliation ordinance which he passed in October 2007, which effectively guaranteed life-long immunity from prosecution to corrupt politicians such as Benazir Bhutto, her husband Zardari and others, Musharraf said, "Yes, I agree with you that charges should not have been dropped. But then Benazir has good contacts abroad in your country (UK), who thought she was the future of the country."
When Jemima Khan confronted with the suggestion, for example, that he will have to work with a coalition government consisting of most infamous crooks in Pakistan, he said, "I'm not running a martial law here. What can I do?"
He added, "My role as a president is simply the checks and balances the seatbelts a sort of father figure to the prime minister but I won't have to see him for weeks."
When referred to Nawaz Sharif's statement that he will reinstate judges who were unconstitutionally deposed by Musharraf, he said, "It is not a dictatorship here. How can you reinstate judges if you become prime minister? How?"
Interestingly, Musharraf said he liked Imran Khan, Jemima's ex-husband.
"You know, I liked him. But he is the most unrealistic person. I wanted to support him."
To a query who will emerge victorious, Musharraf said, "The PML-Q allied with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will certainly have the majority. Whether they'll be able to form a government is a question mark."
Musharraf dismissed the opinion polls, saying they are biased.
"They have been abusing me right from the beginning and you will never get good results from them,"he said in the interview.
Musharraf added, "The media has let me down. The NGOs are against me. I don't know why I think I have been the strongest proponent of human rights. In fact, the only people who are not against him, according to him, are the Western leaders who he says are absolutely supportive and express total solidarity."
An angry Musharraf described the deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry as "the scum of the earth a third-rate man a corrupt man".
Text: Rediff News Bureau
Photographs: AFP/Getty Images
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