ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has rejected the ruling party’s claim and said that the PML-N was the true successor to the Quaid-i-Azam’s Muslim League.

“The sane people of Pakistan know which Muslim League is the true heir,” he said while addressing from London a function organised here as part of the centenary celebrations of Muslim League.

He said the role played by the king’s party by using the name of Quaid-i-Azam ‘must be painful for the soul of the founder of Pakistan’.

Accusing President Pervez Musharraf of mortgaging Pakistan’s sovereignty to prolong and legitimise his rule, he said the ruling PML was ready to re-elect Musharraf again as a president despite him being an army chief.

He criticised the judges who authorised General Musharraf to amend the constitution in accordance with ‘his whims’. “How can the court, which itself is not empowered to amend or re-write the constitution, accord the same right to an individual,” he asked.

He warned the judges and the ‘people in uniform’ who had played a role in the military take-over, of accountability, and said there would be no chance to escape.

He said abrogation of the constitution was a crime and the constitution and the land of the law provided for the trial of the perpetrator under relevant provisions.

He claimed that he would return to Pakistan before the next elections and celebrate the next Eid in Pakistan.

He said Gen Pervez Musharraf had himself conceded in his book that the decision for a U-turn in Afghan policy was the result of a threat given by Richard Armitage, the then deputy secretary of state.

Terming Gen Musharraf a ‘coward in commando uniform’, Nawaz Sharif said he had decided to make Pakistan a declared nuclear power despite receiving five phone calls from the president of the United States asking him to ‘exercise restraint’.

He said that he had not bowed before the US pressure and decided what he thought was in the best national interest.

He urged the people of Pakistan to support his efforts for restoration of true democracy in the country.

Chairman PML-N Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq also said the PML’s centenary celebrations would continue throughout the year to educate the people on how Pakistan came into being and what was the driving force which necessitated a separate home-land for Muslims of the sub-continent. He said the ways and means to secure the future of Pakistan will also be discussed during various functions.

Party’s senior vice-president PML-N Syed Zafar Ali Shah also spoke on the occasion.