By Xinhua
Islamabad : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has urged the exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to abide by the agreement and not to return, newspapers said Thursday.
Musharraf said Nawaz Sharif has been conveyed a message by an “eminent personality” and friend of Pakistan to abide by the agreement of not returning to the country before the end of ten years of his exile.
The president was quoted as saying “he entered into a written agreement with a very eminent personality, a great friend and well-wisher of Pakistan and this personality has given him a message not to violate this agreement.”
“And he should also show character and not violate the agreement,” Musharraf said.
“He (Nawaz Sharif) himself expressed his wish and desire to go abroad to avoid his life imprisonment,” the president said.
Musharraf said in the election year it was vital that there was consensus to understand the threats that the country was facing and to have political and national reconciliation to counter these challenges.
He said the political reconciliation could best be achieved if the people of Pakistan voted for those who desired progress, development and stability of the country.
“If I remain, your progress and prosperity will be my priority, ” Musharraf said.
Sharif, leader of a major opposition party Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), served twice as prime minister of Pakistan in the 1990s, and went into exile in 2000 under a brokered arrangement after being sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of corruption, hijacking and terrorism, a year after his government was dissolved by army chief Musharraf in a bloodless coup in 1999.
Reports suggest under the agreement Sharif chose to go into a 10-year exile to evade his life imprisonment and should not return or be involved in politics during the period.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled last week that Sharif and his brother, as citizens of Pakistan, have the right to stay in Pakistan, about three weeks after Sharifs filed a petition for safe return to Pakistan to contest the coming general elections, due later this year.
But the short court order did not mention how Sharif could be protected from earlier charges against him.
Pakistani President Musharraf earlier warned that Sharif would be arrested if he returned.