Former president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf said he had received financial assistance from Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia in 2009.

The former military ruler, in an interview to a private news channel, said he used the money to buy property in London and Dubai. He, however, claimed no one can prove his offshore investments.

Musharraf claimed he had family relations with the late Saudi king who “was like a brother to me”. “I was the only one with whom he used to smoke.”

The former president last year claimed in an interview he had ad to let Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif go as Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah had advised him to.

“I remember what King Abdullah said to me. He always thought of me as a younger brother, and he genuinely felt so. I had no plans to spill any blood anyway. I was never going to hang Nawaz. It couldn’t be done,” Musharraf had said.