Daily Times

LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Friday, said that former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf should return to Pakistan and face the court cases against him.

While addressing Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) members, he vowed to bring Musharraf back to the country and said, “It is about time that those who violated the Constitution are punished”.

“The courts will have to be awakened on Musharraf’s cases,” he said.

He called the former president a coward and alleged that he was making excuses to stay abroad.

Before leaving Pakistan last year to seek medical treatment abroad, the former president said, “”I am a commando and I love my homeland. I will come back in a few weeks or months.”

Referring to his departing statement, Nawaz said that if he is brave then he should return to Pakistan and face the court cases against him.

“If he is so brave, he should come to Pakistan and face the cases,” he said.

Earlier this week, he had said that he was disqualified because he had started the treason case against Musharraf.

In 1999, the then army chief Musharraf toppled Nawaz’s government in a military coup and ended his second term as the prime minister.

He is currently held by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as the primary suspect in PPP leader Benazir Bhutto’s murder.

Addressing a ceremony held in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh earlier on Wednesday to commemorate Benazir’s 10^th death anniversary, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Musharraf was responsible for his mother’s assassination.

Earlier this week, Musharraf rejected claims that he ordered the Benazir’s assassination.

Speaking to BBC, the former president, while referring to the reports of him threatening her on the phone, rejected the claim that he ordered her assassination.

“Honestly, I laugh at it,” he said, “Why would I kill her?”

Musharraf also said that some rogue elements of the establishment could have been involved in her murder. He added that rogue elements could have been in touch with the Taliban as well because the Pakistani society is polarised on religious lines.

He explained that any woman who is inclined towards the west is seen with suspicion by such rogue elements.