Wednesday, September 09, 2009
By Mazhar Tufail
ISLAMABAD: Former president Pervez Musharraf, who will be embarking on a 40-day visit to the United States on September 14, will meet US President Barack Obama in the third week of October, during his US lecture tour, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
He claimed the former president has been offered $300,000 per lecture by various American think tanks and other institutions. “Only former US president Bill Clinton is being paid as much for delivering a lecture and nobody else is being paid more than this amount,” said Chaudhry Fawwad, Advocate, a member of the legal team appointed by Musharraf to defend him in the Pakistani courts.
“The former president will deliver lectures in 17 American states.” Chaudhry Fawwad said Musharraf would deliver lectures on Pakistan’s national security, nuclear programme, future of Afghanistan and impact of the Afghan situation on Pakistan.
He said another topic of his lectures would be the role of Pakistan’s Army in the war against terrorism. The lawyer said a meeting of Musharraf with US President Barack Obama had been fixed for the third week of October.
He said during his stay in Washington DC, the former military ruler would also meet former US secretary of state Colin Powell, Senator John Kerry, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and heads of various US think tanks and lawmakers.
“Begum Sehba Musharraf and security staff will accompany the former president during his visit to the United States,” he added. Chaudhry Fawwad said on his way back, Musharraf would make a stopover in Abu Dhabi where leaders of all the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) factions — except the one led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — would meet him.
He said during the meetings, the unification of all the PML factions would be discussed and efforts would be made to achieve this objective. “The former president is constantly in touch with PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. The PML-N conspired to cause further split in the PML-Q but its conspiracy has been foiled,” Chaudhry Fawwad said. “Chaudhry Shujaat will be appointed as president of the unified PML because, according to Musharraf, he is a sagacious and wise leader.”
Source: The News
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