LAHORE, Feb 21: PPP leader Qasim Zia on Saturday asked the PML-N leadership to initiate legal proceedings against former president Pervez Musharraf and get him arrested for toppling the Nawaz government in 1999, instead of accusing the PPP of protecting the military dictator.

Addressing a hurriedly-called press conference, he said the PML-N should become a complainant against Gen Musharraf and take the case to a court of law, adding that the PPP would never hinder such a move.

Mr Zia, a member of the Punjab provincial assembly and PPP’s former provincial president, refuted an allegation by Mr Nawaz that President Asif Ali Zardari was behind his possible disqualification from seeking a public office.

On the contrary, he said, it was the PPP government which had gone into appeal against

Mr Sharif’s disqualification by the Lahore High Court last year.

He said the PPP had never deviated from the constitutional and democratic path. “It was also the PPP leadership which brought the PML-N back into election (in 2008), which the latter had decided to boycott after the death of Ms Benazir Bhutto,” he said.

Had the PPP leadership not been sincere with the democratic process, it would not have convinced the PML-N to take part in the electoral process and before that it was Ms Bhutto who had paved the way for the return of the Sharif brothers to the country, Mr Zia said.

He said the PPP had never attempted to remove the PML-N government in Punjab. Rather, he said, it had insisted on being part of the provincial government to ensure political stability in the province.

In these circumstances how can the PPP government be accused of de-stabilising the Punjab government? he asked

Mr Zia said the PPP had made the Leader of Opposition, Chaudhry Nisar of the PML-N, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, but the PML-N had not reciprocated the gesture in Punjab despite a clear understanding with the PPP in this regard.

He alleged that the PML-N was operating through unelected people in the province but was accusing the PPP of reneging on its promises.