London:
Nearly 10 months after he left Pakistan, self-exiled former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said he is willing to contest elections as it will give him the "legitimacy he never had" during his nine-year rule.
"I love my country and I would do anything for Pakistan," said Musharraf, who was forced to quit last year, hinting at his possible return to national politics.
"I have to come through the political process, through the process of elections. But I think it's very good - it's very good because I think I will have that legitimacy which I never had," he told a meeting at the Chatham House think-tank in London on Monday evening.
"For Pakistan one would be prepared to do anything. However, it is for the people of Pakistan who need to decide. I'm a civilian now, I'm not a military man, I cannot take over anything," the 66-year-old former military ruler said in a reference to his seizure of power in 1999 when he ousted the elected government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
He did not say if he has decided to return to Pakistan to face trial over his 2007 detention of judges as he attempted to cling to power.
Musharraf had imposed a state of emergency and sacked 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the Supreme Court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
Musharraf now lives in a three-bedroom flat behind the 'shisha bars' and 'kebab joints' of London's Arabic quarter. But security remains tight.
The ex-general is guarded by a small team of retired Pakistani commandos and pays for his security himself.
Scotland Yard also extends protection to the former Pakistani ruler. Musharraf backed the current military assault on Taliban stronghold Marjah in southern Afghanistan, but said world powers must make their commitment clear.
"When we are talking of running away and going after two years and all that, if I was the Taliban commander, I would leave all the places and not offer any resistance," he said, adding "we must give them (Afghans) the hope and strength that we are going to stay behind them and support them."
He also warned that beating militants in Afghanistan and the border areas of Pakistan was vital in defeating extremists all over the world.