London: Amid reports that the Pakistan government and the country``s judiciary could be on a collision course, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif has accused President Asif Ali Zardari of being behind the current crisis in the country.
At a news conference in London, Nawaz came out knuckle-bare against Zardari, alleging that he was only interested in saving his looted wealth and was bringing the whole country down with him for his personal greed, The News reported.
He further said that Zardari was the main cause of confrontation with the judiciary because he was facing Swiss cases and other rules of law, and added that he should not exploit the nation for his own benefit.
He also accused Zardari’s top lieutenants and some of the closest advisers of misleading the president and pushing him to the brink, saying that these advisers were motivated only by self-interest and would be the first ones to abandon him in his difficult time.
The President had breached all the promises and agreements in the past and he could not be trusted with anything, said Nawaz, adding that he had taken out his ministers from the coalition cabinet after realising that Zardari had no regard for any of his own promises.
“We had entered into the coalition government with noble hopes of introducing democracy, good governance and prosperity and economic stability of Pakistan and accountability of those who had devastated Pakistan for nearly eight years,” he said.
“We wanted accountability of those who killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, those who brought loadshedding and economic mismanagement to Pakistan, those who had handed over Pakistani citizens to foreign countries, and those who had arrested judges and attacked the courts,” he added, regretting that none of these was done by Zardari.
Directly addressing the president, the former said, “Believe me Mr Zardari, if only you had fulfilled your promises, you would not be in the mess you find yourself in today, and Pakistan would not be in its current state.”
Zardari never wanted to restore the judges, claimed the PML-N chief, adding that the president had a complete “setting” with the Dogar Court, the nickname for the Supreme Court headed by Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
He never accepted the reinstatement of the superior court judges wholeheartedly, and never respected the decisions the court was making, Nawaz alleged.
“If the independent judiciary had been restored and the process of accountability started, there would be a better government in place and Pakistan would have started with a clean slate,” he noted.
Nawaz also warned the president that the path of confrontation he had taken against the judiciary, and a leading media house, would not take him anywhere and he was bound to cost him very dearly.
ANI
