Aug 31: Without being bothered about General Parvez Musharraf’s decision to take action against Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister who is in exile since 2000 has announced his return to home on Sep 10. Sharif an all time rival of Musharraf has owned the first step in the battle when Pakistan Supreme Court gave verdict in favour of his return to the country last week.
The two-term Prime Minister Sharif was overthrown by the Army General in 1999 and sent to jail and later for a 10-year exile. The military ruler cited the move as a need to eradicate corruption as the Sharif government indulged at that time. Since then Pakistan is on martial law in with Pervez as the Army Chief as well as the President of country.
Musharraf is now planning to retain his position as the President in the coming general elections and also as the army chief, however, the Lal Masjid incident and the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has diminished Musharraf’s chance of returning to power.
First Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate Chief Justice on July 20 and now allowing Sharif to contest in the general election has certainly given a serious blow to Musharraf rule. However, the president has stood firm on the exile of Sharif by stating that Sharif should honour his commitment he had negotiated in his exile pact following his life imprisonment sentence in 1999. But Sharif in a press interview has denied any such deal for his exile and committed to return to Pakistan.
Describing Musharraf’s rule as illegitimate the Pakistan Muslim League leader Sharif on Thursday told that he is looking forward to be back to his country to fulfill his duty respecting the supremacy of the rule of law and the constitution there by ending dictatorship forever.
On the other hand another exiled political leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has announced that she has reached a power-sharing agreement with Pervez Musharraf in which he will step down as army chief after elections. But no clarification has been released from the President’s side.
However, Sharif in response to Bhutto’s claim said, “Any deal between Bhutto and Musharraf is a big setback and a clear violation of a deal agreement between Bhutto and him to have no deals with military dictator”.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition against Musharraf’s role as Army Chief.
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