US, Pakistan relationship at its lowest ebb: Musharraf

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Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has said the current bilateral relationship between Islamabad and Washington was at its lowest ebb, even lower than that after the 9/11 attack.

"We're at a very poor level. I don't think they were at this level even before 9/11,
when I took over," Musharraf told CNN in an interview to a query on the relationship between Pakistan and the US, reported Pakistan's Online news agency.

The relations between the key allies in the war on terror were affected after the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden and the deadly NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

"It is very disturbing, and I only wish that Pakistan and the US mend fences and we move forward on a course which is in the interest of the region, in the interest of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the US," said the former Pakistani president.

Musharraf said there was no danger to the safety of the country's nuclear weapons, unless the country is taken over by religious extremists, which was unlikely.

"If the country goes down and it gets into the hands of religious extremists... then only it is possible that the entire arsenal then belongs to them... But I don't see that as possible," Musharraf said.

Stressing that people of Pakistan need a viable alternative in this hour of crisis, Musharraf said he was ‘prepared to take risk’ of his life to return home from his self-imposed exile.

"Well, yes, I am prepared for the risk. I have to be prepared for the risk," Musharraf said.

"I feel that the country needs me, and I feel that the country is going down so badly in all socio-economic elements and from all governance point of view, that it is high time we bring about another political alternative which can produce a government with the majority of the people, with a mandate of the people who can run Pakistan, instead of doing politics only. And I think I have a role to play there," he said.

The former president said no date has been fixed for his journey, but it will be between Jan 27 and 30.