LAHORE, Aug 14 The chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-N has called upon the armed forces to distance themselves from former president Pervez Musharraf and not to pre-empt his trial.

“The military should cut its ties with Musharraf and should itself file a lawsuit against him,” Nawaz Sharif said at an Independence Day function here on Friday.

“Those who abrogated the Constitution, damaged the judiciary and arrested judges must be punished,” he said.

“If a violator of a traffic signal can be penalised, why a person who violated the basic law of the land should go scot-free,” the former prime minister argued.

Mr Sharif was speaking at a flag-hoisting ceremony at the Aiwan-i-Karkunan-i-Pakistan.

He urged the government to fulfil its responsibility, saying he saw no need for a unanimous resolution in parliament for bringing the former army chief to the dock.

The government should shed its reluctance, he added.

“The talk of (Musharraf's) accountability in parliament must not send shivers down the spine of anyone.”

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had recently told the National Assembly that the government would prosecute Mr Musharraf for treason only after the house passed a unanimous resolution.

Mr Sharif said Gen Musharraf should be brought to justice for pushing the country into a series of crises by “getting Nawab Akbar Bugti murdered and ordering a crackdown on students of Jamia Hafsa”.

Mr Sharif said he, as prime minister, had not been consulted by the army generals over the 1999 Kargil war.

“I accepted responsibility for the misadventure to rescue the country and the military, but in return I was ousted from power and put in solitary detention before being exiled.”

He said the country could not afford another martial law.