THAT Pervez Musharraf's rally in Karachi on Sunday wasn't much of a success goes without saying. Television showed the reality, and flags and buntings failed to hide the lack of popular enthusiasm. Coming after Imran Khan's much larger rally last month, the small crowd must have been embarrassing for the former president-general. But this was his first Karachi rally, so let us wait for more such episodes of 'enlightened moderation' Addressing the people from Dubai via telephone, the former president repeated what he considered were his economic achievements and attacked those in power for failing to build on the gains.

More significantly, as head of the All Pakistan Muslim League, he declared that he would land in Karachi between Jan 27 and Jan 30 to begin his election campaign.

There are voices clamouring for a ban on his entry, and the Sindh government says it will arresthim on arrival for his alleged involvement in many cases. Why not let the law take its own course? The man knows the consequences of his arrest and trial, and if he still chooses to return to Pakistan his friends and enemies should welcome the opportunity for him to go through due process.

The key issue is whether the people want him in parliament or in power. There is nothing to suggest that the people of Pakistan would vote for a former dictator whose democratic credentials they have reason to suspect, given that he usurped power and held a fraudulent referendum among other undemocratic steps that included making arbitrary changes to the constitution and persecuting the opposition. By voting overwhelmingly in favour of the PPP and PML-N in the 2008 election when he was still in power, the people made their preferences clear. What chance does Gen Musharraf have now? Let him stand in the people's court.