Former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that the military leadership has taken a bold decision with regard to the return of ailing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif had no option but to endorse it.
Musharraf – who has been living in self-exile since 2016 – was sentenced to death on Dec 17, 2019 by a special court which found Musharraf guilty of high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution. Now, he is terminally ill and, according to his family, wants to spend rest of his life in Pakistan.
A day earlier the chief military spokesperson, Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, said that the military brass believes Musharraf should be brought back. “General Pervez Musharraf's health is very bad. In such a situation, the leadership of the institution is of the view that he should be brought back to Pakistan. But this decision will be made by his family and doctors,” he said in a television interview on Tuesday.
Read more: Military believes Musharraf should be brought back to Pakistan
“If the family gives its consent, then arrangements would be made to bring him back.” The Express Tribune reported on Monday that Musharraf has expressed a desire to spend the rest of his life in Pakistan.
Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf had toppled the government of Nawaz Sharif in 1998 in a bloodless military coup and then sent the Sharif family into exile after a foreign-brokered deal. However, Nawaz said he holds no grudge against him.
“I have no personal feud with Pervez Musharraf. I don’t want anyone to go through the same emotional shock and trauma with regard to their loved-ones as I had to endure,” he said in a cryptic reference to his tormentor. “I pray to Almighty Allah to grant his recovery. If he wants to return, then the government should facilitate him,” Nawaz said in a tweet.
میری پرویز مشرف سے کوئی ذاتی دشمنی یا عناد نہیں۔ نہیں چاہتا کہ اپنے پیاروں کے بارے میں جو صدمے مجھے سہنا پڑے، وہ کسی اور کو بھی سہنا پڑیں۔ ان کی صحت کے لیے اللّہ تعالی سے دعاگو ہوں۔ وہ واپس آنا چاہیں تو حکومت سہولت فراہم کرے۔
— Nawaz Sharif (@NawazSharifMNS) June 14, 2022
Taking to popular microblogging site Twitter, Sheikh Rashid appreciated what he called the “right and bold” decision of the military leadership. “Nawaz Sharif had no option but to endorse this decision,” he added. “Nawaz Sharif had picked a fight with every army chief in Pakistan, but had also bowed before them when it was in his interests.”
پرویز مشرف کو فوج اور اس کی قیادت نے پاکستان واپس بلا کر درست اور جرات مندانہ فیصلہ کیا۔نوازشریف کے پاس اس فیصلے کی حمایت کے علاوہ کوئی اور دوسرا راستہ نہیں تھا۔پاکستان کے تمام آرمی چیفوں کے خلاف نوازشریف نے لڑائی لڑی اور سیاسی بحران پیدا کیا اور مطلب پڑنے پر ان کے آگے گھٹنے ٹیکے
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) June 15, 2022
Sheikh Rashid is also head of Awami Muslim League, which is a key ally of Imran Khan, the former premier who was ousted through a vote of no-confidence by PML-N, PPP and their allies. Khan and his allies, however, claim that their government was toppled through a ‘foreign conspiracy’ to install an “imported government” on Pakistan.
“The no-confidence move was initiated from London as part of the foreign conspiracy [against the PTI-led govt]. Now who is stopping Nawaz Sharif from returning to Pakistan,” said Rashid. “The agenda of the imported government is to have corruption cases against them dropped and impose an IMF-dictated inflation in the country.”
امپورٹڈ حکومت کا ایجنڈا اپنے کیسسز ختم کرنا اور آئی ایم ایف کی مہنگائی مسلط کرنا ہے۔ عالمی سازش کی عدم اعتماد تحریک کی شروعات بھی لندن سے ہوئی۔اب نواز شریف کو پاکستان آنے سے کس نے روکا ہے۔آج پنجاب میں آئین کے برخلاف دو اجلاس ہو رہے ہیں جس کی پاکستان اور دنیا میں کوئی مثال نہیں۔
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) June 15, 2022
Nawaz Sharif, who has been sentenced to seven years in jail in a corruption case in Dec 2018, has been living in London for the treatment of some undiagnosed illness. He was flown to London in an air ambulance in Nov 2019 a month after the three-times premier was released on bail.
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