'Imran Khan missed PM post for ditching ruling party'

"Imran knows nothing, despite the fact that I went to his hospital and helped him a lot," Musharraf told The News daily, referring to the cancer hospital Khan set up and runs as a charity.

Khan, 50, initially backed Musharraf after he led a bloodless coup against the elected governmen| of Nawaz Sharif in October 1999, saying he believed the army chief could stamp out corruption -- one of Khan's top policy platforms.

But in the past two years he has turned against Musharraf, accusing him and the army of backing corrupt tycoons to stand as civilian proxies in a breakaway faction of Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).