NOWSHEHRA, July 20: A former interior minister, Naseerullah Khan Babar has said that the then PPP government planned to help set up a broad-based government in Kabul on Nov 5, 1996, but a foreign power opposed to the proposal got the PPP government dissolved on Nov 4, to advance its own interests in Afghanistan.

Speaking to a gathering of the District Bar Association here on Saturday, Mr Babar alleged that the former president, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari, was part of the conspiracy and dissolved the PPP government.

He said he had visited the Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar on Nov 3, 1996 and taken Mulla Ghaus with him and held a meeting with Gen Rasheed Dostum, the late Ahmed Shah Masood and other Northern Alliance leaders.

He said he had also visited Kandahar with Gen Dostum and Ahmed Shah Masood, and in the presence of the United Nations envoy reached an accord on the future political setup in the war-ravaged country. However, he pointed out, after seeking the opinion of the United Nations office in New York, the UN envoy dissociated himself from the efforts and rejected the plan.

A main leader of the PPP, Mr Babar said that the same day Farooq Leghari presided over a meeting, attended by then prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the ISI chief, and decided to help the Afghans in setting up a broad-based government. The next day, i.e. Nov 5, the Taliban and the Northern Alliance were to sign the agreement, but it could not materialize after the dismissal of the PPP government, he added.

Mr Babar said they wanted to resolve the Osama bin Laden issue by sending him to a third country where the Saudi would have to face a trial.

The former interior minister said that a US official visited his Islamabad residence and discussed the Osama issue. Mr Babar informed the official about his plan, but the American was seeking a guarantee that the jury must punish Osama, which, he added, was a foolish demand.

He said the US administration was not serious in resolving the Afghan crisis and the Osama issue. They had their own priorities in the region to counter the rising influence of China, he added.

Mr Babar alleged that Gen Pervez Musharraf was looking after the US interests in the region for which he betrayed the Taliban and was now playing with the federal parliamentary system by planning changes in the Constitution.

The constitutional packages, he said, were a threat to the solidarity of the country and added that it was the duty of the political forces to unite on one-point agenda and counter the government plan.

He said the armed forces were opposed to democracy as they had never allowed political governments to work smoothly.