US job offer for Musharraf

Former president Pervez Musharraf has been offered a job in Washington as scholar-in-residence on Pakistan at the prestigious Middle East Institute.

Musharraf, who arrived in the US earlier this month for a lecture tour, spent three days last week in Washington and attended a reception hosted by the Middle East Institute.

The Institute's head, former US Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain, urged Musharraf, a former commando, to be the next Scholar-in-Residence on Pakistan.

The Middle East Institute is willing to create a special Pakistan chair should Musharraf accept the offer, The Dawn newspaper reported today.

Sources close to Musharraf said the former military ruler "seems interested in the offer, which will give him the chance to write another book on his experience as the head of a country considered key to US security".
    
Only a few Pakistanis were invited to the reception hosted by the Middle East Institute. Musharraf did not address the gathering and the guests talked to him in small groups.

Besides Pakistan's US envoy Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan's Ambassador at large Riffat Mahmood, US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher, former State Department officials Robin Rafael and Daniel Markey, and scholars Stephen Cohen and Marvin Weinbaum attended the reception.

Musharraf met American scholars, think tank experts and friends in Washington before leaving for Pakistan last evening. The US State Department has indicated that Musharraf might also have met senior officials in the Pentagon during his stay in the US capital.

The US administration provided full protocol and security to Musharraf. The Pakistan embassy in Washington, however, said it did not pay for Musharraf's security during his visit to the US.