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PML-N unveils charge sheet against Musharraf

* Asks PPP to help in president’s impeachment
* Bugti’s killing and sacked judiciary feature in 10-point draft

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Sunday unveiled a 10-point charge sheet for the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, and pressed the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to honour its commitment in this regard.

“We have drafted a 10-point charge sheet against President Musharraf that will be presented in parliament along with all evidence ... We also have another audiotape in which [Musharraf] is directing a judge,” PML-N senior leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news conference at the party’s central secretariat.

Elaborating on the charge sheet, he said President Musharraf had abrogated the Constitution and twice imposed martial law in the country. He toppled an elected government, and put an elected prime minister behind the bars, the PML-N leader added.

Nisar said President Musharraf launched the ‘Kargil misadventure’ without consulting the then government, adding that he ‘misused’ the Pakistan Army for his own interests and to perpetuate his dictatorial rule.

He said the army was compelled to fight another country’s war in the name of ‘the war on terror’ without parliament’s consent. Nisar also said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was formed under the umbrella of the military to victimise and pressure political opponents to join a certain political party.

The killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti is also on the charge sheet against Musharraf, as well as the sacking of 60 judges of the superior judiciary and putting them under house arrest.

The PML-N leader claimed that Musharraf not only ordered extra judicial arrests of innocent people and political workers in Balochistan and other provinces, but also handed over more than 600 people to the United States in exchange for money.

He said, “The president was solely responsible for the Lal Masjid carnage in which hundreds of innocent children were bombed.”

He also alleged that President Musharraf had written new chapters on nepotism, cronyism, favouritism and corruption in Pakistan’s history, which, according to him, was exposed in the privatisation of Pakistani Steel Mills, Pakistan Telecommunication Limited and the Habib Bank.

Responding to questions, Nisar Ali Khan said PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had, on various occasions, assured the PML-N that his party would impeach Musharraf if he did not tender his resignation.

“We say that [Musharraf] should not be given a safe exit ... his acts make him the most suitable candidate [to attract] Article 6 of the Constitution. If we continue to give a safe passage to dictators the window of military coups can never be shut,” he said.

According to Article 6, any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, or subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert, the Constitution by use of force or show of force, or by other unconstitutional means, shall be guilty of high treason.

He said Zardari had suggested to President Musharraf that the latter step down before June 10 or face impeachment. “The PML-N does not have the sufficient number. We will press the PPP and other coalition partners to support our demand and impeach him through parliament. The PML-N would not have wasted any time had it the required strength,” he said.

Nisar Ali Khan said the PML-N would ask the PPP during the budget session to form a commission on the Kargil war, to investigate the conflict that claimed the lives of over 800 Pakistani troops.

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