Musharraf wanted secret deal in 2007 but I refused: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif informed that the former President General Pervez Musharraf offered him a secret deal to form a joint government in 2008.

While addressing the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) parliamentary committee, PM quoted that Musharraf wanted a secret deal with him in 2007.

A source quoted the prime minister as saying that he did not believe in secret deals, which was why he was always blessed with success. Musharraf offered me the deal directly, but I turned it down, the prime minister revealed for the first time.

PM Sharif said Gen Musharraf was willing to meet him and made several attempts to do so in the past.

But I declined, the prime minister said.

He said that his family did not want to leave their motherland, but were forced into exile by the military dictator.

We left the country in a miserable condition and were not allowed to return for a long time, he said.

The prime minister noted that the former president was now facing a similar fate and had left the country in disgrace.

Now, Musharraf is willing to return to the country, but he cannot, he said.

On the other hand, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, All-Pakistan Muslim League member and past Musharraf supporter disputed all the accusations put forth by the PM. I have been working with Gen Musharraf for a long time and I have never heard any such thing.

Kasuri believed that there was no question Musharraf offered him a deal to form a joint government.

Regarding about Musharrafs exile, Kasuri said his party chief went abroad after he was allowed to leave the country by the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court. He said that while the former general left the country amid fanfare, the Sharifs escaped like thieves.

[The claim is] absolute rubbish and [a] bundle of lies, which has only been propagated for [the prime ministers] image-building that was badly affected due to his lies in the Panama scandal, Mr Kasuri concluded.