Pervez Musharraf

In an interview with India’s IBN Live, Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan, said that while the death of Osama bin Laden was a victory for the peace-loving world, the unilateral action by the US that allowed the said victory was incorrect and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Unfortunately, the retired military man may have some explaining to do about his critical remarks since a news report released by the Guardian on May 9 states that Musharraf, when he was president, made secret deals with the US so that the world’s lone superpower could take unilateral action in Pakistani territory when chasing down bin Laden and other key Al-Qaeda operatives.

A video from IBN Live and a text excerpt from the Guardian, both embedded below, illustrate the pickle that Musharraf is in. This definitely won’t help the general’s plans for a political comeback.

See the video below to hear everything Musharraf said to IBN Live on May 2, 2011.

And here is an excerpt from the Guardian report of May 9:

But under the terms of the secret deal, while Pakistanis may not have been informed of the assault, they had agreed to it in principle.

A senior Pakistani official said it had been struck under Musharraf and renewed by the army during the “transition to democracy” – a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.

Referring to the assault on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, the official added: “As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement.”

The former US official said the Pakistani protests of the past week were the “public face” of the deal. “We knew they would deny this stuff.”