ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The military regime has prepared a game plan to cobble together anti-PPP elements, with Aftab Sherpao playing a crucial role, former interior minister Maj-Gen (Rtd) Naseerullah Babar said here on Saturday.

He was commenting on reports that former NWFP chief minister Aftab Sherpao planned to return to the country on January 6, 2002.

Mr Sherpao, had been convicted in two cases of corruption and misuse of power and is living in self-exile in London.

According to Mr Babar, the game plan is that Mr Sherpao will be arrested as soon as he lands at Peshawar airport, but, set free after three days. Under the agencies’ plan, the backing of the ANP and like-minded group will be sought for Sherpao, he added.

The former interior minister said Mr Sherpao had admitted to owning a Swiss bank account, which he said, he had saved for “the rainy days if democracy in the country was threatened”.

He said the latest plan exposed the nervousness of the military regime.

“With general elections scheduled for October 2002, and the PPP going from strength to strength, the military junta was desperate to stem the democratic tide of the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Babar said Aftab Sherpao had been convicted, and his return to facilitate the plan would further expose how the regime subverted justice to achieve its own political ambitions.

It will also expose the sham nature of the on-going accountability process, he said.

“There can be no worse example of state-sponsored perversion of justice than the one in which those convicted by courts are welcomed back home to play second fiddle in the game of power,” Mr Babar said.

He said it was unfortunate that the brother of the sitting interior minister was shot dead in Karachi.

“As I juxtapose this most condemnable incident with the equally reprehensible power games being hatched by the regime, I shudder to think of the nemesis of those playing such power games,” Mr Babar added.