JOIN USFormer military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile for nearly four years, today said he would return to Pakistan within a week of the formation of a caretaker administration later this month.
"As soon as the interim government is in place, which we believe will be on March 16, within a week of that I will go back to Pakistan," Musharraf told a news conference in Dubai.
He said he planned to fly into either Karachi or Rawalpindi to end his self-exile.
The Pakistan Peoples Party-led government is set to complete its five-year term on March 16 and the ruling party and main opposition PML-N party have begun negotiations on forming a caretaker set-up to supervise the next general election to be held by mid-May.
69-year-old Musharraf, who stepped down as President in 2008 after he was threatened with impeachment, brushed aside questions on whether he would be arrested on his return in connection with several cases against him, including the case related to the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
"I don't see any reason why I should be arrested," he said in response to repeated questions on whether he would be detained on his homecoming.
Musharraf said he would react only "in accordance with what happens at the airport".
"There is no case against me in court. If I am to be punished for giving economic progress to Pakistan and for reducing unemployment...I am ready to face the courts," he said.
"People say it's too late, there are cases against me, my life is in danger (but) it's now or never," he added.
In the past, PPP leaders have said that Musharraf would be arrested as soon as he lands as he is wanted by authorities in connection with Bhutto's assassination.
Musharraf has set several dates for his return to Pakistan in the past but put off his homecoming after he was threatened with arrest.
An anti-terrorism court has declared Musharraf a "proclaimed offender" or fugitive for refusing to cooperate with investigators probing Bhutto's death in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi in December 2007.
Musharraf has been shuttling between London and Dubai after he went out of Pakistan in exile.