LONDON—Former President Pervez Musharraf has summoned a meeting of some Pakistani and Azad Kashmir based politicians in London on February 11, in an attempt to establish his own political party.

Well placed sources wishing anonymity disclosed that the former president during the would-be meeting chalked out a strategy to play greater role again in national politics.

Musharraf already contacted some of his trusted colleagues in the political sphere, the sources said adding that the former president also contacted leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Muslim Conference in Azad Jammu Kashmir through his former federal minister.

However, the sources said that most of the PML-Q politicians and his one time supports flatly refused to attend Musharraf’s scheduled meeting on the ground that he (Musharraf) lost his popularity because of the widely condemned Lal Masjid operation.

“Most of the people view Musharraf as the killer of innocent students of Lal Masjid,” the sources said.

Demonstrating that he has a sense of humour, Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani President, went to see Jihad! The Musical at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London over the weekend.

“He came with one police officer, his wife, and three friends,” says James Seabright, the producer of the controversial show which features such songs as Building A Bomb Today and I Wanna Be Like Osama.
“We had been contacted by Special Branch about his visit on Friday. All they required was that one of their officers should sat beside him. After the show, the general stayed on to congratulate the cast. He was warm and generous in his praise.”

Ben Scheuer, the co-writer of the musical, did not regard it as remarkable that the general should have wanted to see it. “The show makes fun of extremists, not Muslims,” he said.

After relinquishing the presidency of Pakistan , Musharraf moved to a £1.4million penthouse close to Edgware Road where he is guarded by eight special protection officers from Scotland Yard and his own team of retired Pakistani commandos.—Agencies