13 years after coup, Musharraf still holds Sharifs’ responsible

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the coup that brought the then Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Pervez Musharraf into power and brought an end to the government of elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, forcing him to flee into exile to Saudi Arabia.
The chronology of events that took place on October 12 1999 and of those that caused the coup has been the centre of heated discussions on mainstream media following the end of Musharraf’s regime. Naturally, both major actors involved have taken opposite stances on the events that accrued and their legitimacy.
Nawaz Sharif maintains that Musharraf’s takeover was illegal and unconstitutional and was in fact a personal vendetta against his family. Musharraf, on the other hand termed his coming into power a necessity for the country and labels the Sharif government as corrupt. Discussing the political events that revolved around the coup on Express News last night, General Muhsarraf reiterated his stance that the Sharifs had signed a written agreement taking a safe route to exile in Saudi Arabia. He said that they (Sharifs) were in active contact with DG ISI General Mahmud in framing the contract that gave them a safe passage out of here.
Shahbaz Sharif, he said, did not want to leave Pakistan initially but eventually decided to go with the rest of the family. Musharraf said he was not vindictive towards the Sharifs despite the hijacking incident. He said that Hamza Shahbaz, son of Shahbaz Sharif, continued to live and operate his business in Lahore without obstruction and none of their children were prevented from going abroad for medical treatment. Commenting on the performance of the federal and Punjab provincial government, Musharraf said they had failed miserably. He opined that Pervez Elahi had done a much better job during his reign as Punjab chief minister. In response to a question, he said he felt betrayed at being deserted by PML-Q during the end of his presidential era. Interestingly, he was of the opinion that Pervez Elahi would still join forces with him whenever the former president came to Pakistan to participate in mainstream politics. In the forthcoming elections, Musharraf believed that neither PML-N nor Imran Khan would come into power.