PML-N demands Zardari to make secret deal with Musharraf public

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has demanded President Asif Ali Zardari to make public the documents regarding the secret deal with his predecessor General Pervez Musharraf, allowing him a safe exit from the country.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the PML-N would move motions in the Senate and the NA against Zardari for making a covert deal with Musharraf.

“It’s a mind-boggling statement… we demand that Zardari make the details of this deal public. Zardari should disclose the ‘international stakeholders’ involved in brokering the deal seeking indemnity for General Pervez Musharraf. The nation should be told who agreed to give the former military dictator safe passage,” Khan said.

Interacting with media persons at Parliament House here, Khan said Zardari’s disclosure that he too was a part of the agreement is a “serious breach of the country’s sovereignty, independence and self-respect”.

“While all this ‘political wheeling and dealing’ was going on, Zardari had not yet become president, which showed that he became the president with the support of international actors under the same deal,” The Daily Times quoted Khan, as saying.

Shocked by Zardari’s disclosure, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said the President should have taken his party into confidence as a coalition partner before making such statements.

Responding to a question, Sharif said if Zardari had consulted him before revealing the deal, he would have then “tried to guide him in the right direction and would have reminded him of the treatment meted out to the country, democracy and even to his party and its leadership”.

Sharif questioned Zardari’s involvement in the deal, asking under what capacity he became a party in the agreement as he had not assumed the charge of President then.

“Popular leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the tenure of Pervez Musharraf, then how Asif Zardari became party in giving safe passage to Musharraf,” Sharif asked. (ANI)