Agreements with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) “are not sacrosanct like the holy Quran and the Hadith” and can be modified if circumstances change, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said in an interview with BBC Urdu.
“Political parties do not make promises, they only arrive at understandings,” Zardari said, adding that political understandings are “sometimes 50 per cent successful, and sometimes more than that, but are still considered successful”
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said in a press conference on Saturday that Zardari had agreed that the sacked judges would be reinstated within 24 hours of former President Pervez Musharraf’s impeachment or resignation. “What happened to your promise?” (wada tera wada) Nawaz said, quoting from a famous Indian heartbreak movie song from the late 1970s.
Responding to questions regarding the restoration of judges and a time frame for the measure Zardari said he could not give it. Asked if the judges would be restored, he said: “Inshallah! (God willing!)”. Asked when they would be restored, Zardari said he did not believe in “countdowns or count-ups” and could not give a time frame.
Regarding Musharraf’s trial, he said the PPP did not believe in political vendetta, adding that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had not impeached Yahya Khan.
“Bhutto did not impeach Yahya Khan because in that case General Niazi would also have been impeached, and Sheikh Mujeeb had been asking India to hand Niazi over to Bangladesh,” BBC quoted Zardari as saying.
The PPP co-chairman said Justice Nasim Hassan Shah (retired) had admitted that he supported judgement against Bhutto to save judiciary. It was a “judicial murder” of Bhutto, but Benazir did not take action against him because she believed democracy was the best revenge.
To a question on the future of the ruling alliance, Zardari said Nawaz had stayed away from democratic forces for a long time and that “we will try our best to take him
along.”
