Daily Times

LAHORE: In the book titled Sach Tu Yeh Hai, which is an account of his experiences in politics, PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has alleged that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif asked him to frame Asif Ali Zardari in a narcotics case.

The book details Hussain’s brief stint as the country’s prime minister and his interactions with political leaders throughout his career. It was launched at a ceremony held on Tuesday.

Regarding the allegation, Hussain says that he had refused to file the case, and in 2011, during an interaction Zardari credit him for his presidency.

Hussain writes in the book, “Before Nawaz was sworn in as the prime minister for a second time in 1997, Mian Sharif visited me and promised to make Pervez Ellahi the chief minister of Punjab.” After gaining power, Nawaz appointed his younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, on the post.

Further, the PML-Q leader alleges that former prime minister Shaukat Aziz had complained about then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry to Pervez Musharraf.

“Then when Iftikhar Chaudhry was reinstated, I advised Musharraf to settle differences with him and he was ready to, however, their aides did not allow them to proceed in the matter,” he said.

Further, Hussain claimed that Pervez Musharraf used to say that former prime minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali was ‘extremely lazy’.

“Musharraf used to complain that PM sb [Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali] wakes up at noon so I advised Jamali to resign,” Hussain mentions in his book.

Regarding the Lal Masjid operation which he had opposed, the PML-Q leader writes that that the memory of the day still saddens him.

He holds that the 2008 general elections were rigged because ‘America wanted Benazir Bhutto to come to power’.

Responding to PML-N leaders’ criticism of recent Senate elections while speaking at the ceremony on Tuesday, Balochistan CM Abdul Quddus Bizenjo said, “Nawaz Sharif thinks the vote is honoured only when it goes to him or his candidates.”

He said Nawaz respects votes only when his own candidates win. He said why did Nawaz find faults only with the election of the Senate chairman when he was from Balochistan. “Had Nawaz Sharif’s candidate won, the vote would have been respected but now that someone else has won, the vote has not been respected but it has been ‘dishonoured’ instead.”

“I think Nawaz Sharif has himself drawn this line according to which if someone votes for Nawaz or [PkMAP chief] Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the vote is honoured but if it goes to somebody else, it is being dishonoured,” he said.

Bizenjo said that people were leaving the PML-N because they were never respected by its leadership.

“Nawaz Sharif never respected his people but they were not getting a chance [to leave]. We gave them a chance and they took it,” he said, predicting more defections from the PML-N after the current government’s term ended.

He added that he and others had stayed with the PML-Q in 2013 – despite knowing that the party would not get many seats in Pakistan – because of the respect they had received from PML-Q leadership.

“The people of Balochistan are hungry for respect,” the chief minister said.

Published in Daily Times, April 11^th 2018.