They're out to hang me, says Nawaz Sharif

[Ulhas Joglekar]

23 November 1999
They're out to hang me, says Nawaz Sharif
ISLAMABAD: A defiant former premier Nawaz Sharif Monday expressed
apprehensions that he may be hanged while putting in a strong demand for a
fair trial, as an anti-terrorist court judge sent him along with four
co-accused to judicial custody till Friday.
He also met his mother, wife and daughters at a jail in Karachi on Monday
evening, his first interaction with his family since the military coup last
month.
Sharif's wife Kulsoom along with his mother and two daughters were specially
flown to Karachi from their hometown Lahore for the scheduled meeting for
which the military authorities had given a special permission. Sharif's
mother was wrapped in a black shawl with only her bespectacled eyes visible.
Until Sunday, his family had been confined by the army to their homes
outside Lahore.
``We want a fair trial. He is innocent,'' Kulsoom Nawaz said of her husband
in an interview Monday, her eyes filled with tears. ``I was counting every
moment and praying to Allah for my husband because I know he is innocent,''
she said. ``I am thankful to God who has given me and my husband the
strength to face tough times.''
No details of the meeting, however, were available. The entire Sharif family
had been kept under virtual house arrest since the coup on October 12.
Sharif was produced before an anti-terrorism court earlier in the day and
was sent to judicial custody till November 26 when a chargesheet against him
would be submitted before the court in the case pertaining to treason,
attempted murder and plane hijacking.
This is the second time Sharif was produced before Judge Rehmat Hussain
Jaffri. Prosecutor Ilyas Khan had demanded that Sharif be held in police
custody for further questioning. ``There is no justification for further
remand,'' the judge observed, which means that Sharif can now only be
questioned with the permission of the court.
Speaking to newsmen on the stairs of the court, a freshly-shaven and rested
Sharif wearing the traditional salwar-kameez, expressed his apprehension
that he may be handed out a death sentence. ``That is what they (rulers)
want to give me,'' Sharif said.
About the charges of treason, attempted murder and hijacking that carry the
death penalty, which the court is to formally take up on Friday, Sharif
said, ``It is a cooked up story. It will expose itself. I only want an open,
free and fair trial and let the world judge the hollowness of the accusation
against me.'' ``The Constitution has been hijacked,'' he said.
As Sharif's escorted motorcade made its way into the court building,
lathi-weilding cops kept noisy slogan-shouting Sharif supporters at bay.
Dozens of his supporters shouted ``Long live Nawaz Sharif'' and ``Nawaz
Sharif we are with you.'' (Agencies)


|For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
|Disclaimer|

For comments and feedback send Email
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 1999.