Musharraf to use secret ’smoking gun’ on Nawaz, Benazir if cornered

September 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has refuted claims made by President Asif Ali Zardari that Musharraf quit the government as part of a secret deal facilitated by international and local' guarantors. "I neither quit the government nor left the country on any deal," The Daily Times quoted Musharraf, as saying.

September 25th, 2009 LAHORE - Continuing his animosity with the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, former President General Pervez Musharraf has described the former Prime Minister as a 'closet Taliban'. In an interview to ABC News, Musharraf called Sharif 'abrasive' and 'confrontational'.

September 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has demanded President Asif Ali Zardari to make public the documents regarding the secret deal with his predecessor General Pervez Musharraf, allowing him a safe exit from the country. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the PML-N would move motions in the Senate and the NA against Zardari for making a covert deal with Musharraf.

September 5th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said that prosecuting former President General Pervez Musharraf under high treason charges for taking 'extrajudicial' actions on November 3, 2007 would help resolve all crises facing the country currently. Interacting with party workers at his Raiwind residence, Sharif said trying Musharraf would ensure that the door to military interference in the country's politics would be closed for good.

September 4th, 2009 LAHORE - Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hassan has said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has signed a secret deal with former President General Pervez Musharraf that awarded clemency to him from being tried under high treason charges. Interacting with media persons after an Iftar party here, Hassan said the PML-N was also a part of the government like the MQM, ANP and JUI.

September 3rd, 2009 RIYADH - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has returned to London after his three day visit to Saudi Arabia, and it seems his tour has yielded the desired results. Musharraf, who had a long one to one talk with King Abdullah amid speculations of yet another Saudi-backed political arrangement in Pakistan, was in 'high spirits' after the meeting, sources said.

September 1st, 2009 LONDON - The resurfacing of the 20-year-old scandal of Nawaz Sharif accepting millions from the ISI for political shenanigans has thrown a fresh lifeline to besieged former President Pervez Musharraf, who feels that now the PML-N chief could end up in a dock for committing a crime against democracy. A top aide of Musharraf disclosed that he strongly believes that those who were clamouring for his trial under Article 6 must also demand a similar course for three retired Army generals - General Aslam Baig, General Hameed Gul and General Asad Durrani, who distributed millions of rupees among politicians like Nawaz Sharif, "as it equally amounted to high treason." The aide insisted that Musharraf believed "that it had resurfaced at a time when Nawaz was acting all-holy and pious as if he was the only honest politician left in Pakistan who did not have any blot on his character." But now, it has turned out to be otherwise, as the only twice-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan who had been taking money from the ISI along with his fellow politicians now sitting in the ranks of the PML-N, the aide added.

August 26th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - While former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has come under fire from certain quarters for protecting former President General Pervez Musharraf from being tried under Article six of the Constitution, a report in a leading Pakistan daily suggests that Sharif is being targeted. According to The News, while it is difficult to determine as to who is behind this campaign to prevent Sharif from initiating an all out legal war against Musharraf and press for his trial under the High Treason act, there are indications of involvement of some key government players in this blamegame.

August 18th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is not interested in dragging former President General Pervez Musharraf to the court of law, but rather favours reconciliation with the former general. Zardari said the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) favours reconciliation with Musharraf, and that the fate of the ex-Army chief would be decided by the parliament.

August 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - US President Brack Obama's Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has told the Pakistani leadership that as far as Washington is concerned, former President-General Pervez Musharraf is history. In an interaction with former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif at the Punjab House here, Holbrooke said that the United States would not create any hurdle in the way of the Pakistani parliament to put Musharraf on trial for acts of treason against the state.

July 25th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has defended his action of dismissing Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in March 2007, saying the decision was absolutely 'constitutional and legal' He, however, admitted that the handling of the situation at that time was "shabby". "I don't blame myself because I don't get into the nitty gritty of which Deputy Superintendent of Police was rude to him.

July 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, for the time, has admitted that there was a secret "understanding" between him and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto which facilitated her return to the country in October 2007. "There was an understanding.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has once again blamed his predecessor Pervez Musharraf for death of his wife and former premier Benazir Bhutto, claiming that she died by a bullet not by the bomb that a Scotland Yard report identified as the cause. "I wish Musharraf had looked after my wife as I can look after myself," The Telegraph quoted Zardari, as saying.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Alleging that the former President General Prevez Musharraf was responsible for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has urged the government to put the autocratic ruler on trial. The PML-N asked the government to register a first information report (FIR) against Musharraf for Bhutto's assassination and put his name on the Exit Control List (ECL), The Daily Times reports.

May 15th, 2009 LAHORE - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has denied reports that he had asked the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif to seek US help during the Kargil war in 1999. In an interview to a private television channel, Musharraf said he had never asked Sharif to talk to the then US President Bill Clinton to 'save the army' during the Kargil war.