ISLAMABAD, May 24: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has held Gen Pervez Musharraf responsible for denial of Pakistan’s re-entry into Commonwealth.

This was stated by Siddiqul Farooq, the information secretary of the PML-N, in a rejoinder to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s statement in which he blamed the opposition for Pakistan’s continued suspension from Commonwealth membership.

The PML-N leader said the “arrogance of Gen Pervez Musharraf was the major stumbling block in Pakistan’s return to the Commonwealth”.

He said the Commonwealth and the European Union and every country believing in parliamentary democracy, was “astounded at the audacity of a grade-22 government servant, who wanted to usurp the office of the president and keep the parliament under his thumb, and then expected the world to recognize this system as democratic.”

He urged the prime minister “not to disgrace the Baloch tradition, free himself from mental slavery of Gen Musharraf and follow the principles of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah.”

The PML leader said if Gen Musharraf would have restored the 1973 Constitution in full and contested presidential election under the Constitution after taking off his uniform then not only Pakistan would have been taken into the fold of the Commonwealth, but the country would have also regained its prestige in the eyes of the entire free and democratic world.