PPP leader Qasim Zia addresses a press conference at Lahore Press Club.—ONLINE

LAHORE PPP leader Qasim Zia on Saturday asked the PML-N leadership to initiate legal proceedings against former president Pervez Musharraf and get him arrest for toppling the Nawaz government in 1999, instead of accusing the PPP of protecting the military dictator.

Addressing a hurriedly-called, he said the PML-N should become a complainant against Gen Musharraf and take the case to the court of law, adding that the PPP would never hinder such a move.

Mr Zia, a member of the Punjab Assembly and PPP`s former provincial president, refuted an allegation by Mr Nawaz that 
President Zardari was behind his potential disqualification from seeking a public office.

On the contrary, he said, it was the PPP which had gone into appeal against Mr Sharif`s disqualification by the Lahore High Court last year.

He said the PPP had never deviated from the constitutional and democratic path. `It was also the PPP leadership which brought the PML-N back into election, which the latter had boycotted at the death of Ms Benazir Bhutto,` he said.

Had the PPP leadership not been sincere with the democratic process, it would not have convinced the PML-N to take part in the election process and before that it was Ms Bhutto who paved the way for return of Sharif brothers into the country, he said.

He said the PPP had never tried to topple the PML-N government in Punjab, rather, he said, it had insisted on being part of the provincial government to ensure political stability.

In these circumstances, how can the PPP government be accused of de-stabilising the Punjab government? He asked.

Mr Zia said the PPP made the Leader of Opposition chairman of public accounts committee, but the PML-N has not reciprocated the gesture in Punjab despite a clear understanding with PPP in this regard.

He alleged that the PML-N was operating through unelected people in the province but was accusing the PPP of reneging on promises.