Can Pervez Musharraf save Pakistan from the destruction he started!

Pakistan's Pervez Mussharaf with American President George W Bush.

  Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former president, is back home after more than four years in self-imposed exile. Musharraf touched down in Karachi on Sunday morning, despite the possibility of arrest, and a threat from the Taliban to kill him.

"I have put my life in danger by coming back to Pakistan. I was thinking that the government would call me back, and would say 'Save Pakistan' but that did not happen. Today my nation ordered me to come back. I came back, putting my life in danger, to save Pakistan," he said.

Pakistan ex President Pervez Musharraf.

"He believes that he is a man of destiny, that he has a purpose in life, but his return to Pakistan is more to secure himself and get to do something inside Pakistan. He is facing some very serious challenges here, he has not returned as an ex commando or ongoing commando, because commandos always remain commandos, he is returning as the head of a political party, which doesn't quite exist on the ground ... he plans to contest an election, so he is returning primarily to take refuge in the protection of politics, and trying to legitimise himself."

Musharraf left Pakistan in 2009, a year after being forced to step down. He has experienced the highs - and lows - of being one of Pakistan's most powerful politicians. 

General Pervez Musharraf as Army Chief.

In 1998, General Musharraf was appointed army chief by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But the two fell out.Musharraf seized power the following year, a day after Sharif sacked him. Musharraf was later sworn in as president, but retained his position as army chief.

Musharraf Supports Bush on War on Terror.

Then came the events of 9/11, and Musharraf's support for George Bush's War on Terror made him deeply unpopular at home. The year 2007 proved a tumultuous period for Musharraf when he took on the judiciary, sacking judges and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

He ordered security forces to storm the Red Mosque in Islamabad, resulting in the killing of more than 100 people. 2007 also saw the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, with Musharraf's government accused of "willful failure" over her protection. And with pressure mounting over events during his time in power, Musharraf resigned, going into exile in 2009. He is wanted by Pakistani courts over the deaths of Bhutto, and Akbar Bugti, a Baluch rebel leader in the southwest. The former leader believes these and other charges - which he describes as "trumped-up and politically motivated" - will be thrown out. Musharraf returned to Pakistan on Sunday after a four year self-imposed exile, during which he spent most of his time in England and Dubai and speaking tour in the United States.

But with all these political, legal and security issues at stake, is returning to Pakistan a gamble worth taking? And how will Musharraf fare in the upcoming elections?

The White House has said the return of Pervez Musharraf, the former dictator of Pakistan, is an "internal matter" of the country, even as a top US diplomat in Islamabad said that the event is unlikely to have much impact on the results of the May 11 general polls.  "I don't see this as a terribly large or significant event. I could be surprised, but I don't see this as terribly consequential," the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson, told a Washington audience on Monday while responding to questions on the return of the former Pak General, who ruled the country for a decade.