Pervez Musharraf to launch new Pakistan political party
Pervez Musharraf says he hopes "to bring about a new political culture" in Pakistan
Former Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf is to launch his new political party on Friday.
Several of his associates have arrived in London where the All Pakistan Muslim League will be unveiled, reports say.
The former president told the BBC that the government in Pakistan was dysfunctional and the economy and the country were failing.
Correspondents say there is no real likelihood of him returning to the country in the near future.
Mr Musharraf also appears to lack the kind of political organisation that could win him an election in Pakistan, they say.
"When there is a dysfunctional government and the nation is going down, its economy is going down, there is a clamour, there is a pressure on the military by the people," Mr Musharraf told the BBC's Today programme.
"There is a sense of despondency spreading in Pakistan and the place that they go to is the military. There is nobody else people can go to," he said.
Mr Musharraf said he was launching the party in London because he risked assassination if he returned to Pakistan. He has survived a number of plots in the past.
Last month, he said he would return to Pakistan for the next national elections, scheduled for 2013.
The former president went into exile in 2008 after his allies lost elections.
Mr Musharraf, who now lives in London, announced earlier this year he would set up the All Pakistan Muslim League to address "the crises facing Pakistan", and the party began a public recruitment campaign.
By returning to politics in Pakistan, he says he hopes to bring about a new political culture to the country.
There are legal cases pending against Mr Musharraf back home and if he does go back he will have to face them.
Mr Musharraf says the cases are politically motivated.
Last month, he told the BBC he would be standing for a seat in the 2013 parliamentary elections.
From there he said he hoped to become either prime minister or president.
He seized power in 1999 when, as chief of Pakistan's army, he ousted elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup.
Analysis
Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Karachi
Despite what he and his allies say, Pervez Musharraf remains one of the most unpopular people in Pakistan and is unlikely to be going home any time soon.
He is blamed by the masses for most of the country's problems and is top of the hit list of most jihadi groups. Many of his former enemies are now in powerful positions.
That is not to say the former military ruler does not have some supporters but they are primarily among the affluent and Westernised urban elite - a miniscule constituency that almost never votes in general elections.
He also still has admirers in the military-civilian establishment that effectively runs Pakistan.
But they only back candidates with at least half a chance - at the moment, Mr Musharraf has none and needs a miracle to have any hope of changing Pakistan's political landscape.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11450507