ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, on Friday lashed out at former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, calling him a 'coward' who preferred a stay in hospital instead of facing the courts.

Taking strong exception to the former president’s remarks against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Shah said that, "Musharraf should try to be man enough to spend even half a day in jail, instead of ridiculing Asif Zardari who spent over a decade in detention and faced police brutality".

"Since he feared being sent to prison by court, Musharraf demonstrated 'shameless cowardice' by asking the driver to turn the vehicle towards a hospital, feigning pain in his chest, instead of appearing in court", Shah said in a statement Friday.

Read: Musharraf moved to hospital; court grants exemption

Shah claimed that his party's co-chairman spent 11 years in jail including long periods in solitary confinement without any conviction by a court.

"He was tortured while in custody and his tongue was slashed. Zardari was dragged from court to court, city to city and jail to jail as torture," Shah claimed.

The PPP stalwart added that Asif Zardari was kept from living with his family when his children were in their formative phase of life and were in most need of fatherly care.

"If this is not torture while in custody then what else is this," asked Shah.

In a television interview yesterday, former dictator Pervez Musharraf had claimed that Asif Ali Zardari was never tortured in jail and he completed most of his jail term in a Karachi hospital.

Moreover, Musharraf also called for extending the tenure of current Army chief General Raheel Sharif.

“I wish he carries on with all he (Gen Raheel) is doing,” he said.

“What he is doing right now, it needs continuity and if there is any change in the leadership amidst this all, all good work which has been done so far would go in waste. So I can only wish and suggest that he should stay there.”

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