ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday admitted that he should have kept his distance from the memo scandal.
“I should have had nothing to do with the scandal,” he told reporters at the accountability court, referring to the scandal that erupted when Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz claimed to have received an ‘anti-army’ memo from Hussain Haqqani, the then Pakistan’s envoy in Washington DC, seeking assistance from the US for the then PPP government for ‘reigning in’ military as well as the intelligence agencies. The scandal was taken to the Supreme Court by the then opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and several others. The PML-N supremo said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had been set up by a dictator just to target politicians and force them into changing loyalties. He expressed the apprehension that the institution might again be used to achieve desired ends before the upcoming general elections.
When asked about his statement on dialogue with the state institutions, Nawaz said he talked about sitting with the state institutions for the sake of democracy and the rule of law. He said that the state institutions should operate within their constitutional limits.
Published in Daily Times, March 28th 2018.
