Pervez PervMusharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
returned home on Sunday after more than four years in exile, defying a Taliban death threat and vowing to "save" the country at the risk of his life.
"I have come back home today. Where are those who used to say I would never come back?" the former dictator, who plans to stand in a historic May 11 general election, told members of his political party at Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport.
Hundreds of supporters had gathered at the airport, beating drums, dancing, waving green flags with pictures of Musharraf and Pakistain's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and scattering rose petals.
"I don't get scared by anyone except Allah the Almighty... I have come back by putting my life in danger," Musharraf, who also faces a series of legal cases, told a gathering of his All Pakistain Mohammedan League.
"I have been ordered by my people to come back and save our Pakistain, even at the risk of my life. I want to tell all those who are making such threats that I have been blessed by Allah the Almighty."
Musharraf was forced to scrap plans to hold a public rally at Jinnah's mausoleum in Karachi after the Taliban threatened to send a squad of jacket wallahs to assassinate him.