Nawaz Sharif,has claimed he was verbally assured by intermediaries that he would have to stay out of the country only for five years.
LONDON: In a new twist to the controversy over his exile deal, deposed Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif, who has vowed to return home onMonday, has claimed he was verbally assured by intermediaries that he would have to stay out of the country only for five years and not for a decade as maintained by the government.
Sharif, who was toppled in a bloodless military coup in 1999 by President Pervez Musharraf, told a hurriedly-called press conference here last night that he received the assurance from Saad Hariri, son of assassinated Lebanon Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was negotiating the agreement on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
On the statement of Hariri, whom he met in London recently, that Sharif was returning to Pakistan in violation of an agreement, the former Premier charged him with telling lies.
He said Hariri himself had said "sorry" to him at their meeting in London for failing to ensure the actual understanding, according to which Sharif was supposed to return to Pakistan in December 2005 itself.
Sharif's remarks followed a press conference by Hariri in Islamabad in which he strongly backed Musharraf's agenda.
The former Premier, who was till now saying that he had not entered into any deal with the government, was quoted as saying by the media that he had accepted the exile for five years after Hariri himself gave him a firm commitment in his Attock Jail cell that he would return to Pakistan in 2005.
Sharif, the chief of PML-N, claimed he was not allowed to move out of Saudi Arabia, where he was sent on exile, by the Musharraf regime as Pakistan government did not issue travel documents, but he did not say whether he was a "hostage" in Jeddah at the hands of the Saudi rulers.
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The PML-N leader said he has already written a letter to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in which he explained the whole situation arising after his decision to return home.
He claimed that when he was in the Attock Jail, Saad Hariri visited him with a document of understanding, which said that Sharif would be required to stay abroad in exile for 10 years, to which he immediately objected as he thought this was a very long period for a politician to stay away.
Sharif said that on his insistence, Hariri went back to consult with Crown Prince Abdullah (now the King) who, too, agreed that 10-year period was very long. Sharif said he proposed that the exile should be only for five years and the Crown Prince fully agreed with his proposal.
He said, when Hariri returned to his cell, he told him that he should not worry about the revised understanding, as he would take care of it afterwards.
Sharif was quoted as saying that Hariri told him that the most important thing was to get out of the cell instead of waiting for revision of the document and stated that he would be back to the country within five years.
The deposed Premier said, according to the understanding, he could leave Saudi Arabia after landing at Jeddah. But, he alleged that it was not fully honoured as he was neither allowed to return to Pakistan after five years nor he could go out of Saudi Arabia.
Sharif, who currently lives in London, said he had raised the issue of his return to Pakistan with Hariri after five years in exile in Saudi Arabia but he had offered him some excuses which he thought were responsible for delay in the execution of the verbal understanding and his return to Pakistan in 2005.
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