HONG KONG, Sept 15: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has said he isn’t aware of any pending legal actions in Pakistan stemming from years of his rule but is prepared to face any that emerge.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the state of emergency he imposed was unconstitutional, but Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ruled out bringing treason charges against the former military ruler unless parliament passes a unanimous resolution requesting them.

“I’m prepared to face that for the sake of Pakistan. And I know since whatever I did has all the legal backing and legal cover, I’m very confident that nothing can happen legally against me,” he said.

Talking to reporters in Hong Kong after addressing an annual investors’ forum organised by the CLSA brokerage, Mr Musharraf said: “There are elements opposed to me, political elements, and they are the ones who engineer these cases. One has to face that. I’m very confident nothing can happen (on his eventual return home).”

He said he would soon launch a new political party, touting his support among the Facebook generation as he vowed to remake the country’s politics.

The retired general accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai of lacking ‘legitimacy’ but urged the West to stay the course against the Taliban or risk destabilising the region still further.

“I’m going to declare a party on October 1... We have to bring about a new political culture in Pakistan,” said the 67-year-old Musharraf, who lives in self-imposed exile in London.

Mr Musharraf, who plans to stand for parliament at the next general election in 2013, did not say where he would launch his All Pakistan Muslim League. Media reports say the October 1 event is slated for London.President Asif Ali Zardari’s and Benazir Bhutto’s 21-year-old son Bilawal is being groomed for his own political career, but Mr Musharraf said Pakistan had to turn a page on its dynastic politics and claimed to have his own following among the Pakistani youth.

“My going back is dependent certainly on an environment to be created in Pakistan,” he said, but added, “I would say with certainty in the next elections, whenever the signs of the next elections come up I will be there in Pakistan.”

He acknowledged he had lost popularity in Pakistan, especially after firing the chief justice – who has since been reinstated – and the subsequent state of emergency. But he said he was confident he can rebuild a support base rooted in Pakistan’s youth and others disillusioned with politics. He noted that more than 75 per cent of his 295,000 followers on Facebook were between the ages of 18 and 34.

“Therefore I know that it is the youth that is yearning for change. It’s the youth that is demoralised today. And I know that they can be awakened and brought out to introduce a new political culture into Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Musharraf said the Pakistan government was struggling to cope with the floods because it lacked resources and international aid was insufficient. He estimated that the scale of reconstruction would be larger than that required after the deadly earthquake in Kashmir in 2005.

He said he had already organised a telethon in London to raise funds for the victims and was planning another one in the US on Larry King’s CNN talk show. He said Henry Kissinger and Angelina Jolie had agreed to take part.

Afghan crisis: Mr Musharraf had a dismal relationship with Mr Karzai, who regained power last year in an election that was widely decried as fraudulent.

“There must be a legitimate government in Afghanistan... He (Karzai) does not have that legitimacy,” Mr Musharraf told the CLSA forum.

In contrast, he heaped praise on US General David Petraeus, calling the head of foreign forces in Afghanistan a ‘great commander’.

But with US President Barack Obama planning a troop drawdown from mid-2011, Mr Musharraf warned that abandoning Afghanistan would “be playing into the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda”, and said “quitting is not an option”.

“The whole world is against the Taliban. So why can’t we win? We can win and will win. But we will suffer casualties,” he said. “No one is analysing the effect of abandoning the region on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the world.”—Agencies