ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Jailed president of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has urged two former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, to return to Pakistan to lead the nation in this hour of trial after the earthquake disaster.

Talking exclusively to Dawn at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on the eve of completion of two years of his arrest on October 29, the ARD president said the country was in dire need of a true leadership.

He asked the government to allow Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif to return to the country without any further delay.

“The time has proved that at present there is no leadership in the country,” said Mr Hashmi, who is also acting president of the PML-N.

Mr Hashmi, who is undergoing a 23-year-imprisonment in a treason case, said the government was not renewing Nawaz Sharif’s passport for which he had applied several months back. It seemed that the rulers were afraid of Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif as they knew that there would be no place for them, if the two former prime ministers returned to the country.

Expressing his concern over the state of judiciary in the country, the PML-N leader regretted that he was about to complete his sentence, but his appeal was still pending before the high court. Similarly, he said, his bail petition had also been pending before the Supreme Court for long.

Mr Hashmi claimed that bail had become his basic right adding that under the law, if appeal of a person was pending before a court, he could not be kept under detention for a period of over two years.

The acting PML-N chief reiterated his point of view that the army had no role to play in politics and it should only concentrate on its professional duties. He said according to the constitution, the army’s duty was to protect the nation from destruction, whether caused by war or natural calamity. “They (army) have failed to perform this constitutional duty after the October 8 earthquake,” he added.