August 21, 2007	Tuesday	Sha’aban 7, 1428

LONDON, Aug 20: Former president Justice (retd) Rafiq Tarar on Monday asserted that contrary to the claim of Attorney General Justice (retd) Malik Abdul Qayum, he did not remit the sentence of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as part of any ‘deal’.

Mr Tarar, who is in London these days, made this assertion in a letter he sent to the AG on Monday.

Addressing the AG, the former president said: “I am greatly perturbed by your public claims regarding my decision on December 12, 2000 to exercise authority under Article 45 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in remitting the sentence awarded to former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif.”

He asserted that the AG’s allegation that the remission was an advantage obtained by Mr Sharif by way of a ‘deal’ was without basis.

He said that such allegations had been made “to apparently bear influence on the judicial proceedings pending before the Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan”.

The former president listed the following considerations on which his decision to remit the sentence of Mr Sharif was based:

— “As prime minister, Mr Sharif withstood severe western pressure and acted in the supreme national interest to conduct nuclear explosions and thereby provide an unequivocal answer to the government of India.

— “The emergence of Pakistan as a sole Islamic nuclear state was a matter of pride not only for the people of Pakistan, but for the entire comity of Muslim nations.

— “I had grave personal reservations regarding the conduct of the trial against Mr Sharif and the judiciousness of the verdict in the infamous hijacking case.

— “I could not remain unmoved by the passionate pleas made by various heads of state of various brotherly Islamic nations that we not repeat the folly of 1979.

— “Lastly, I took into account the worsening health of Mr Sharif while incarcerated in Attock Fort and his personal plea of December 2000.”