By IANS
Islamabad : Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has accused President Pervez Musharraf of “blackmailing and threatening” him by presenting a “fake and fraudulent document” in the Supreme Court on a purported deal relating to his exile to keep him from returning home.
And in what could prove to be a major embarrassment for the Pakistani government, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Thursday remarked that the document was not an agreement but could be termed an undertaking.
Since only one party had signed the document, it was only an undertaking, the bench noted.
Sharif, in an interview with the Geo News TV channel, said: “Musharraf is distributing photocopies of the agreement but why he does not show the original documents in the court if the agreement was signed with him?
“Principally, Musharraf must posses the original documents if he claims the deal was signed with the government of Pakistan,” Sharif added during the interview, conducted in Germany.
At the same time, he admitted to an “understanding” with the Saudi Arabian government at the time he went into exile in 2000, a year after Musharraf had toppled him in a coup. He, however, refused to reveal details.
Sharif’s brother Shahbaz Sharif, a former Punjab chief minister, also went into exile with him at the same time.
“The entire government drama is meant to blackmail us and the entire nation, but yes I acknowledge that there was an understanding with the Saudi Arabian government at that time, but I can’t reveal that because it is a very sensitive issue,” Sharif maintained.
According to the former prime minister, Musharraf’s lawyers had sought time from the court to present the original documents – and this proved there was no deal with the president or the Pakistani government.
The government Wednesday submitted copies of the purported documents saying the Sharifs are to stay out of the country for 10 years – till 2010.
The Sharif brothers have challenged their exile even as Musharraf is moving to strike a power sharing deal with another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.