LAHORE, Dec 23: Former Punjab governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar advised Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday to allow former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif to return home as a genuine political process would not take off in their absence. To reciprocate the gesture, he said, the leaders of the two major parties should recognize the general as country’s legitimate president to open a new chapter of harmonious relationship between the army and the parties that treat the institution as their rival.

Then, Mr Khar told Dawn, Gen Musharraf should hold consultations with leaders of all parties, the ones represented in the parliament as well as others, to evolve a consensus on all important issues. The possibility of setting up a national government should also be explored to effectively grapple with all serious challenges facing the country, he said.

Mr Khar said Gen Musharraf should not bank on the PML-Q alone at this juncture, as the party had failed to blunt public criticism of the army, and try to widen the base of his support by taking along other political forces. An olive branch extended by him to the exiled leadership, he believed, would bring about a qualitative change in the environment of tensions and conflicts.

He said that in the greater national interest, the leaders of the PPP and the PML-N should not revile Gen Musharraf or question the legitimacy of his rule as he “happens to be the president” of the country.

The former governor said the country had been under direct or indirect army rule since 1956, because of which the democratic system could not grow strong. Ruthless and unjustifiable experiments carried out by various dictators in their respective tenures on the nation would not have been permissible even on birds in civilized societies.

Time had come for both sides to bury the hatchet and learn to work together to place the country on the road to democracy and progress. Describing such a cooperation as civil-military partnership, Mr Khar said, politicians and the army should govern the country together for 10 years.

During this period, he said, the superiority of civilian rulers should be restored and the destroyed state institutions rebuilt. The politicians and the army should also serve as a check on each other to ensure that neither side indulged in corrupt practices. When it was pointed out that the partnership he was calling for was already in existence since a general was the president and a National Security Council comprising military and political leadership was also in place, the ex-governor said he would not agree with the suggestion. He said everybody knew that the electoral process the country witnessed in October last year was nothing more than ‘selections’.

Mr Khar said Kashmir, new water reservoirs and the nuclear programme were the major issues needing urgent attention of the government and the opposition. He proposed that Gen Musharraf should discuss these matters with political parties before formulating his policies.

In response to a question, the former governor said although Gen Musharraf claimed to have restored democracy, he was himself formulating all policies.