NRO and Memogate: Nawaz denounces remark on trial from Benazir’s grave

Says he is not levelling allegations against Zardari or Haqqani.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif – who is a petitioner in the Memogate scandal – has flayed President Asif Ali Zardari for terming the reopening of his cases “a trial of Benazir Bhutto’s grave”.

He was speaking to the media outside the Islamabad High Court on Monday after appearing before the three-member commission probing the memo scandal.

Responding to a question regarding Swiss accounts and the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict in the NRO case, Nawaz said: “Why is the government reluctant to write to the Swiss authorities? Linking embezzlements with Benazir’s grave is not fair.

“They must answer whose $60 million is kept in Swiss banks. This is the nation’s wealth which it now wants back,” demanded Nawaz.

The memo

Clearly stating that he was not levelling allegations against the president or the former ambassador to the US in the Memogate case hearings, Nawaz said that he was merely pleading “an investigation” into the matter.

The PML-N chief said that Zardari’s recent statement to accept only the parliamentary committee’s report in the memo case was a demonstration of “no confidence” in the judiciary.

He said, “I’m just a complainant in the case. I appeared before the commission to show my respect towards the judiciary.” He claimed that the parliamentary committee on national security (PCNS) has done nothing on the issue so far.

After submitting his written statement through his counsel Mustafa Ramday, Nawaz said: “I have not named Haqqani or Zardari, I have just pleaded for an investigation into the matter.”

The judicial commission, set up to probe the Memogate scandal, is headed by Balochistan High Court (BHC) Chief Justice Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and it continued its hearing in the Islamabad High Court in the presence of cameras and microphones recording the proceedings officially.

The PML-N chief said that the Memogate scandal was a “serious and sensitive issue and was a plot against the country’s integrity”. He said that he had not levelled allegations against anyone, and the scandal was a conspiracy to malign Pakistan’s sovereignty.

He also termed the memo a conspiracy against the country and urged the authorities concerned to unmask the culprits behind the scam.

Replying to another query about former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s return to the country, he said: “It is good news.”

The judicial commission continued its probe into the Memogate scandal on Monday, while the parliamentary committee on national security will meet on Tuesday to continue its own proceedings.

The judicial commission has been given four weeks to complete the probe, while the PCNS has not been given any deadline.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2012.