• When you were removed, there was no public outcry, no protests. That’s what surprises me also. You had just won with a two-thirds majority, and someone comes and removes you, and nothing happens, not a whimper.

I think that’s out of fear of the army. That was out of the fear of the uniform, which has now dissipated to a very large extent.

•So there was a fear of the uniform?

Yes, it is also surprising that when the late Bhutto was hanged nobody came out on to the streets. I think even then there was this fear of the uniform. But the fear of the uniform has not been a good thing in Pakistan and the army’s intervention — and intervention every now and then, I think — has been damaging for Pakistan.

• But the fear of the army should be for the enemy. Not for its own people.

Well, our generals have been trying to scare our own people more than the enemy. So they felt that with the uniform they could intimidate their foes, intimidate politicians, scare the people.

• But you think now that this fear is gone?

To a very large extent, which is a very good thing for democracy.

• So what are you fighting for? You are fighting for becoming the prime minister again, obviously?

I’m not looking for prime ministership. I am not looking to form a cabinet or a government. I think that, more important than forming a government, more important than even fighting the elections, is to put the country back on the rails, to go back to the Constitution of 1973, the late Mr Bhutto’s Constitution, to shut the doors on the army, on the generals, and to come into politics.

... contd.