Musharraf staged coup fearing disciplinary action: Sharif

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf chose to stage a military coup in 1999 possibly to avert a disciplinary action being contemplated by the Pakistan government for his Kargil misadventure, deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif has said.

"Perhaps he had already prepared a contingency plan to pre-empt that, it was perhaps something akin to 'chor ki darhi mein tinka' (meaning the guilty leaves an obvious proof of his guilt)," Sharif, whose government was toppled in the coup, said in an interview to 'Dawn' in London.

Asked how could a serving Chief of the Army Staff contest an election in uniform, Sharif said "Musharraf is ridiculing his own uniform, he is ridiculing his own institution, and he is trampling all norms of decency, constitutionality and the rule of law under his feet."

Sharif, however, said he was not indulging in politics to become Prime Minister. "My politics is only to put the country back on the rails, my politics is only to establish the rule of law, restore the 1973 Constitution. In return whether I get something or not, it does not matter."

Asked if Musharraf wanted to keep the uniform until December 31, 2007, for possibly rigging the forthcoming presidential and national elections, Sharif answered in the affirmative and said the General needed the uniform to keep the ruling PML-Q members frightened so that they would not revolt at the time of his re-election.

"I was the first one to suffer this ploy of his. He tried to frighten me with his uniform and his troops, but I refused to be frightened and stood my ground. He did the same thing with the Chief Justice and he also refused to be scared."

Sharif said the solution to recurring military coups in Pakistan was to strengthen powers of the Prime Minister. He believes that a powerful Prime Minister can also deal with the menace of extremism.

The restoration of genuine democracy would also enable extremist elements to become part of the democratic process within a couple of years, he said.

Sharif described the current situation in Pakistan as "highly disturbing" and said "frankly I do not know which way we are heading, where is Musharraf taking Pakistan, I have no idea. I have been two times Prime Minister of Pakistan, and I am at a loss to understand which way we are heading."

With the political crisis mounting after the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry, Sharif said Musharraf was now on the losing side because many of the ruling PML members, who earlier ditched Sharif, were now thinking of abandoning the military ruler, who was also losing support of the US.

When told that Musharraf appeared indispensable for US in view of its stand-off with Iran, Sharif said he might have become more valuable for President George W Bush, but not for the Democrats who have captured both houses of US Congress.

He said Musharraf was "losing out on all fronts" in the wake of the judicial crisis, rising extremism, insurgency in Balochistan, increasing cases of suicide bombing, creeping Talibanisation, revolt in the tribal areas, depleting water resources, diminishing power generating capacities and destruction of national institutions, including his own Army.

Sharif said the current struggle of the bar and bench after the suspension of Chaudhry was the best thing that could have happened to Pakistan. "It reinforced my belief that the people of Pakistan will one day soon rise against the tyranny of military dictatorship."