August 23, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 9, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 22: Former president of Pakistan Rafiq Tarar says no documents relating to agreement of the Sharifs with the military government was ever submitted to the presidency.

“I did not see even (a) photocopy of the so-called ‘agreement’,” he told reporters here on Wednesday while commenting on the documents the government had presented before the Supreme Court regarding an “undertaking” given by the Sharifs to stay away from the country for 10 years.

Mr Tarar was the president when Gen Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif’s government in a military coup in October 1999 and when the Sharifs were banished from the country in December 2000.

He said the only document presented to the presidency was a written application by the Sharifs for abolishment of their sentences so that they could go abroad for medical treatment.

While abolishing the sentences, the former president said that he had in mind, besides the advice of the chief executive (Gen Musharraf), the view that the cases against the Sharifs were wrong.

He said the application mentioned neither any country nor any specific timeframe.

He said being a retired judge he could say that unattested copies (of any documents) enjoyed no legal value.

Mr Tarar said that seeking of time from the apex court by the government for presenting original documents depicted that no such agreement existed.

He said even if such an agreement existed, it was illegal and unconstitutional for the Constitution neither allows banishment of a citizen nor it permits restricting as a punishment any citizen to return to their homeland.

The former president said that several army generals had been repeatedly requesting him for a “specific purpose” about the Sharifs but he would not divulge these requests thinking it as against national interests.

He said the movement launched by Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif back in 2000 had unnerved the generals to the extent that they started looking for a chance to exile the entire family to bring in control the internal situation.

Answering a question about government’s threats to reopen the high treason and other cases, he said: “The Chief Executive wants to lick what he has spitted through his advice (to the then president for abolishment of the Sharifs sentences).”