LONDON, Feb 16: Any move to perpetuate Gen Pervez Musharraf’s tenure as president and army chief through a constitutional amendment would be ‘illegal’, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif told Gulf News in an interview.

“Amendments to the constitution that allow Musharraf to continue as president and army chief before or after the elections are unacceptable... It is illegal and unconstitutional. I will not recognize it and the people of Pakistan will not recognize it,” Mr Sharif said, warning that the 2007-8 elections would also be stage-managed just as they were in 2000.

Mr Sharif, free to travel after five years in exile in Saudi Arabia, arrived in the UK a fortnight ago, to try and get the best treatment for his son. Issuing an urgent appeal for countries in the forefront of medical research like India to help his ailing son Hassan, with whom he flew to Geneva on Wednesday, he also said: “India would have lost nothing if it had refused to deal with a military general... If India values its credentials as the world’s biggest democracy, it should have nothing to do with leaders in Pakistan who are not legitimately elected representatives.

“It should remember that any war with India has always happened under a military ruler, not a popularly elected government.”

In a hard-hitting, candid interaction, the first since he arrived in the UK, the self-styled ‘architect of peace’ with India also spoke of the ice-breaker with former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Colombo that led to the landmark Lahore summit.

Mr Sharif said he would like to pick up the threads where he left off if he came back into the reckoning. “I hear Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is doing great things for India, I would be happy to share my thoughts with him.”

Mr Sharif also put paid to speculation that he had permanently ended his sojourn in Saudi Arabia. “I owe my life to ... King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. He is a good friend who came to my aid when I needed it the most.”

Mr Sharif denied that he and his family had moved to Saudi Arabia under a deal.