ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif has disclosed that he was pressurised by a senior military official to rescind the orders to dismiss Gen Pervez Musharraf as army chief and sign an advice for dissolution of the National Assembly and his resignation as prime minister on October 12, 1999.
Mr Sharif said he refused to sign the documents saying “over my dead body.”
In a book titled “Jila Watan Wazir-i-Azam” (Exiled Prime Minister) launched here on Friday, he said the then Corps Commander Rawalpindi Gen Mahmood threatened him of dire consequences for “disobeying the orders.”
Various aspects of military take-over and dismissal of Nawaz Sharif government, his implication in treason case and life in exile in Saudi Arabia have been uncovered in the book by its author Dr Saeed Elahi quoting Nawaz Sharif.
Speaking at the launching ceremony of the book here on Friday, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chairman, Raja Mohammad Zafarul Haq, demanded formation of a commission to probe the Kargil episode thoroughly.
He said the characters responsible for the misadventure should be unmasked and awarded punishment. Many former members of PML-N, had supported the proposal after the military take-over — they included Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri and Lt-Gen (retd) Majid Malik, he added.
Mr Haq said many revelations have been made in the book, but certain important aspects remained untouched. For instance, the book has no mention of the Kargil incident, who initiated it and what loss it caused to the interests of Pakistan, he added.
Referring to the ‘house arrest’ of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and killing of Akbar Bugti, he said an individual has no right to declare someone as traitor or issue certificates of patriotism.
He said 19 grand-sons of Akbar Bugti were still under the custody of agencies, with their whereabouts unknown to the family members. It is also not clear that they were still alive or had been killed.
He said hundreds of people from different parts of the country were missing, and since the agencies were not under the administrative control of the Defence Ministry, nobody could know where they were and what was their condition. He said there was no rule of law and even the courts cannot know the whereabouts of the missing people.
Zafarul Haq said Nawaz Sharif had been implicated in a ‘fabricated’ plane hijacking case and it was evident from the proceedings of the case.
He said the witness of the captain of the plane had not been recorded and the voices from the black box had been erased before the same was played in the court. He said all the six other accused were acquitted and Nawaz Sharif was the only one to be convicted.
“How can a single person hatch a conspiracy. You need to have at least two people for it,” he remarked.
He said Rahmat Hussain Jafri, the Judge of the Anti Terrorism Court which decided the case, in his verdict observed that he was not awarding death penalty to Nawaz Sharif as he had not taken the initiative.
He said under the aviation law, a plane has to keep sufficient fuel to go back to the place from where it takes off, in case it could not land at its destination for some reason.
