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".