Nawaz allowed Musharraf to leave country: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had allowed General (R) Pervez Musharraf to leave the country.

“General Musharraf could not have left the country if his name wasn’t removed from the ECL. His name was removed by the Ministry of Interior which could not have taken such a big step without the permission of the prime minister,” Qureshi said in the National Assembly.

According to the PTI leader, the stance of Nawaz Sharif that Musharraf was sent out of the country without his permission was not correct. Nawaz Sharif said it was the court not he who had allowed Musharraf to leave the country.

On Wednesday while concluding his statement before the accountability court, Nawaz Sharif said that cases against him were a result of the treason trial being initiated against former president General (R) Musharraf. Nawaz alleged that once the proceedings started against Musharraf he had gauged that it would be hard to get the former military ruler convicted. "All the weapons are made for politicians," Nawaz remarked.

"When Musharraf left for the court in 2014 he directly went to the hospital as it was decided before. Musharraf pretended to be sick and avoided the case hearings," Nawaz said, adding the judges failed to send Musharraf behind the bars for even one hour.

Meanwhile, responding to Qureshi, Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said Musharraf's name was removed from the ECL on the orders of the court. Rafique said PTI played a central role in weakening democracy in the country, asking who introduced the umpire and who kept on cursing Parliament. The PML-N leader said the process of removing politicians from the back-door was not correct, adding that he was also not in favour of Jahangir Tareen being disqualified.