"I would not leave Pakistan. It is my home. Am I safe there completely? Of course not. If there are risks but it is not new for me to live with risk. The army is protecting me. But of course - everything is possible," Musharraf said.

Pakistan is in a "very bad shape", he said. "I brought foreign investments. I built roads. Nobody invests there anymore."

When the interviewer pointed out that he was first Pakistani ruler who had not been executed, jailed or exiled, Musharraf said even the interviewer was getting emails ‘from people who would like to have me back’.

Musharraf said he did not miss the ‘good old days’ when he was in power. "I have found time to spend with my family and friends. But I do care about Pakistan. It is obvious that I keep watching what is going on," he said.

Musharraf said he intended to stay on in Pakistan and write another book and ‘go on the lecture circuits’.

Though Musharraf's son Bilal is in California, he said he wanted to stay on in Pakistan as he has a daughter who lives in Karachi. "She organises musical events. Pakistan is my country," he said, adding that he would continue to live in Rawalpindi till his house in Islamabad is completed.

Musharraf also said he had just finished reading his own autobiography ‘In the Line of Fire’ because he ‘needed to reflect’. Asked if he had started writing his next book, he said: "Not yet. The whole situation in Pakistan got me and others in a state of shock."

... contd.