LAHORE, Nov 16: Warning that the incessant hostility between the army and the political parties may change the very geography of the country over the next few years, former Punjab governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar advised both sides on Sunday to bury the hatchet and make a 10-year agreement for power-sharing.

To make the atmosphere conducive for the purpose, he said Gen Musharraf should declare a general amnesty for political prisoners including Asif Ali Zardari and those in NAB custody, and allow Benazir Bhutto, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif to return home.

At a news conference in the Lahore Press Club, he said Gen Musharraf should show “paternal magnanimity” and ignore any error committed by acting PML-N president Javed Hashmi.

Mr Khar met PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif in London recently, but made it clear that he had not floated the proposal in consultation with them.

Also, he made it clear that he was not in contact with the military leadership and was speaking only in his personal capacity.

The former governor, who remained in exile for some nine years after Gen Zia overthrew the PPP government, said banishment was the cruelest punishment. He said Gen Musharraf should stop using the whip and instead treat his political opponents with love.

In his opinion it was not fair for anyone to deprive a party of its leadership and the step amounted to treason.

Mr Khar believed that a change of policy towards his adversaries would aggrandize Gen Musharraf’s stature and place him among the towering world leaders like the Quaid-i-Azam and Nelson Mandela.

Asked whether in the light of his meetings with Ms Bhutto and Mian Shahbaz he was in a position to speculate on their possible reaction to his idea, Mr Khar said he was 90 per cent sure that they would see it positively.