ISLAMABAD: The controversy over former president Pervez Musharraf’s ‘safe passage’ deal with the PPP in 2008 deepened on Sunday when former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he stood by his statement and declined to comment on the party’s official statement.

“I stick to whatever I have said. And I will not comment on Babar Sahab’s statement,” Mr Gilani said when his attention was drawn to a statement made by Senator Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman for the PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. The former premier was talking to reporters at an Iftar hosted by Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Choudhry Abdul Majeed.

Reacting to Mr Gilani’s opposition to retired General Musharraf’s treason trial on the ground that the former president had reached a deal with the PPP, to ensure safe passage after his resignation, Mr Babar had insisted that “there was no deal with anyone about the so-called safe passage for Musharraf”. According to the former prime minister, the PML-N was part of negotiations which had led to the deal.

Mr Gilani kicked up a controversy on Friday after he said talks held with the establishment in 2008 led to the understanding about Mr Musharraf’s going abroad after quitting the post of the president.

Know more: PPP at odds with Gilani over Musharraf’s trial

Opposing the government’s move to try the former military ruler under Article 6 of the Constitution, he said the policy now adopted by the PML-N was not correct and advised it “to keep in mind the details agreed upon with the establishment”.

The PPP distanced itself from Mr Gilani’s stance and declared that it was in favour of Musharraf’s treason trial.

But despite Senator Babar’s statement, PPP Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira endorsed Mr Gilani’s claim about ‘safe passage’ for Musharraf, but said the there was no agreement that the former army chief would not be tried under Article 6.

Mr Gilani’s statement drew a sharp reaction from the ruling PML-N which denied that “any agreement or deal” had been reached with Musharraf and insisted that he had resigned because of his possible impeachment by parliament.

Mr Babar had stated that a committee comprising senior leaders of the PML-N and PPP had been set up to prepare a charge-sheet for Mr Musharraf’s impeachment and that the panel had painstakingly prepared a comprehensive document listing charges against him.

At that point, he said, preparations had been made to convey a message to Mr Musharraf through one of his confidants that work had been completed to start impeachment proceedings.

“It seems that Gen Musharraf clearly read the writing on the wall and he chose to resign and leave the country,” he said.

Mr Kaira said Musharraf himself was responsible for the situation he was now facing and he would have to face the treason trial.

About Mr Gilani’s remarks that the PML-N should not hold the trial, he said there had been no discussion, much less an understanding, on the issue of treason trial at that time.

Talking to reporters in Karachi on Sunday, senior PPP leader Raza Rabbani also endorsed Mr Babar’s statement and said the party wanted the government to take the trial to its logical conclusion.

Meanwhile, the Awami National Party (ANP), which was a coalition partner in the PPP-led government, has also refuted Mr Gilani’s claim about a deal with the former president.

ANP’s Information Secretary Zahid Khan also criticised Mr Kaira for saying that the ANP had also been taken on board about giving safe passage to Mr Musharraf.

“No such thing was discussed with the ANP at that time,” he said and asked PPP leaders “not to drag his party into their internal rift”.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) has also denied that its chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been consulted by the PPP on the safe exit plan for Mr Musharraf, as claimed by Mr Kaira.

JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai said the discussion had never been held with the Maulana.

“There are contradictions within the PPP on the issue which is evident from the statements made by Senator Babar and Mr Kaira.”

He said the JUI-F believed that legal action should be taken against Mr Musharraf, not only for imposing emergency in the country but also for the bigger crime he had committed in Oct 1999 by toppling an elected government.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2014