‘Brainless’ Nawaz will ruin Pak if re-elected as PM: Musharraf

LONDON - In his first public meeting in Birmingham after announcing the creation of his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party, former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf called former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ‘brainless,’ and the PML-N a family party.

Noting that Nawaz had failed to deliver during his previous two terms as the country’s premier, Musharraf said that the PML-N chief would ruin Pakistan if he became Prime Minister for a third term, The Nation reported.

He also revealed that the joint communiqu� drafted following the then Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore on Nawaz’s invitation, did not carry a word about Kashmir.

“When I asked him about it, Nawaz Sharif replied that Vajpayee would not sign the communiqu� if Kashmir was mentioned. At this I said that he should better go back if he does so,” Musharraf added.

During his presidency, Musharraf had clearly told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that peace could not be achieved unless the Kashmir issue was solved, he said, adding that nobody worked for the Kashmir cause as much as he did.

At one point of time, there was a flutter in Musharraf’s Birmingham meeting when a Hizb-ul-Tehrir activist interrupted him, demanding an Islamic system in Pakistan. At this, the APML founder vowed to make Pakistan a modern Islamic state.

Earlier, Musharraf had announced that he had a good chance of winning the next presidential election due in 2013, and he would return to his country before that to “introduce a new political culture,” though he recognised that on his return, he would have to face some legal cases and also that there would be danger to his life.

“Two hundred per cent I will participate in the next election. Standing for myself. Standing for a party that I’ll create…. I have fought wars, I have faced dangers and I’m a lucky man. I’ll try my luck again and I’m not scared of that,” Musharraf, who is presently living in exile in London, had said. (ANI)