KARACHI, March 24: Retired Gen Pervez Musharraf returned home on Sunday after about four years of self-exile only to find that his expectations about a rousing welcome were not quite realistic.

An Emirates airline flight carried Gen Musharraf and a corps of local and foreign media personnel and leaders of his All Pakistan Muslim League from Dubai and landed at about 12:55pm at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport.

The authorities arranged to provide him and his companions the facility of the VVIP lounge.

Gen Musharraf emerged outside the VVIP lounge about two and a half hours later.

“I have put my life in serious danger and come back to save Pakistan,” he said in his 10-minute talk with journalists in front of his supporters who could not hear what he was saying because of faulty sound system.

“I have come back home today. Where are those who used to say I would never come back?”

He said this was his first day of launching active politics in Pakistan but from this “day one” he had started facing conspiracies.“The conspirators have sabotaged my first rally at the Quaid’s Mausoleum, but I am overwhelmed to see how many people from all parts of the country have come to receive me. I am really very happy to have come back to my motherland,” he said, adding: “I am not scared of anyone, except Allah the Almighty.”

He said he was a soldier who had learned not to hesitate to sacrifice life for the sake of the country. “I have come back under the same oath and have put my life in danger.”

“Those who are giving me life threats, I want to tell them that I am a Syed, a soldier and a staunch Muslim. I don’t fear death. I am a more devoted Muslim than those who are threatening me.

“I want to tell all those who are making such threats that I have been blessed by Allah.”

He said the state of affairs the country was passing through now saddened him.

“Poverty and unemployment have broken the back of my people. I promise to you, I am here to get back for you the same Pakistan I had left behind four years ago.”

He criticised the government on the rise of militancy in Karachi and said the city belonged to the Baloch, Sindhis, Mohajirs, Bengalis, Biharis and everyone who lived there and had a stake there. He appealed to all the people and political parties to make Karachi a bastion of peace and prosperity.

Gen Musharraf said he would soon start his political campaign and hold rallies across the country.

“We will save Pakistan at any cost,” he chanted before going back into the VVIP lounge whose door had remained open throughout his talk.

His supporters who waited for hours but could not hear a word of what Gen Musharraf told reporters were visibly disappointed.

Before his arrival, till 11.40am, there were dozens of personnel of the Airport Security Force, police and Rangers in the open space outside the terminal, and only about half-a-dozen party leaders who were largely seen busy on their mobile phones apparently getting directions from their superiors. And then, the first group of supporters emerged, dancing and chanting slogans in favour of the retired general.

The information secretary of Gen Musharraf’s APML, Aasia Ishaq, claimed: “Tens of thousands of people are coming from across the country. They are getting late because of severe traffic jams on highways.”

She criticised the authorities for cancelling the permission given to the party to hold a rally at the Quaid’s mausoleum and said the APML had postponed the meeting ‘in protest’. The authorities accorded full security protocol to the former president as was evident also in the evening when he left the airport for a hotel. The traffic on the entire lane connecting the airport to the hotel on Sharea Faisal was blocked to ensure a hassle-free journey for his 25-plus motorcade, most of which were vehicles of police and security agencies.

Security arrangement for his supporters and media personnel was non-existent. The security personnel stuck to their positions and did not bother to check or frisk anyone.

Besides Karachi, a number of his supporters had come from Larkana, Umerkot and parts of Balochistan and Punjab. They carried the party’s green flags with imprints of the Quaid-i-Azam and Gen Musharraf’s portraits, some of them wearing white T-shirts printed with Musharraf’s picture, and shouted slogans.

There were groups of people dancing and beating drums and showering rose petals while a few pick-ups were fitted with loudspeakers playing national songs.

A local police official, A.D. Chaudhry, put the number of people present there at about 1,000.

Local TV actor Wasim Ansari, who resembles Gen Musharraf and appears in a TV show in his get-up, was also present at the airport. “Whatever popularity I have gained today is because of Musharraf. I regard him as my leader and can do anything for him,” he said.

A middle-aged man in the crowd witnessed the proceedings calmly and introduced himself just as a supporter of the PPP.

“I have come here just to witness how edgy and hapless Gen Musharraf has become,” he said. “He is paying back for what he did to our leader.”