May 29, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

LAHORE, May 28: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said here on Wednesday that there was no justification for providing a safe exit to Pervez Musharraf and claimed that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari had agreed with him to remove the former army chief from the presidency.

He said that Musharraf must be held accountable for abrogating the Constitution.

He announced that he would join the lawyers’ march if the pre-emergency judiciary was not restored.

Speaking at a function held here to mark the 10th anniversary of first nuclear tests, Mr Sharif said that during a meeting with him in Islamabad on Tuesday, Mr Zardari had agreed to work with him to oust Pervez Musharraf.

Urging the masses to be prepared for a decision greater than the one they had given on Feb 18, the PML-N leader said that had his party got a clear mandate he would have overthrown Musharraf the following day.

The former prime minister, who was ousted in a military coup on Oct 12, 1999, said he had forgiven Musharraf for the mistreatment and torture he had suffered at his (Musharraf’s) hands.

But, he said, he would not absolve Musharraf from the charges of devastating the country by selling it to foreign powers, carrying out what he called the Lal Masjid massacre, incarcerating nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan and superior court judges and handing over innocent Pakistanis to American agencies in return for dollars.

“I have told Mr Zardari that I will ride the lawyers’ bus for Islamabad if the deposed judges are not reinstated,” Mr Sharif added.

He said his party had quit ministries for the sake of its principled stand on the judges’ issue and it was ready to go even further.

Urging the masses to be ready for a movement for deciding the fate of the country, he said that people had to prove that “they are a living nation”.

The fate of the country should be decided in Islamabad, and not in Washington or anywhere else, he added.

He said India had recognised Pakistan as an independent and sovereign nation when Islamabad detonated the nuclear devices. But, he regretted that an army dictator had pushed the country towards destabilisation, carried out massacre from Karachi to Khyber and given the nation the gift of suicide attacks and lawlessness.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Sirdar Zulfikar Khosa, Khwaja Saad Rafiq and other PML-N leaders spoke on the occasion.