Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed his willingness to consider any official initiative for a “grand national reconciliation”, if President Pervez Musharraf were to make it clear that he is not a candidate for any post.
“He should allow a level playing field and invite everybody to come back home to sit across the table and resolve all matters among themselves,” said the PML-N leader soon after the Supreme Court in Islamabad ruled that Sharif could return home from a forced exile.
The former premier told the Geo News channel that he was ready to sit with Musharraf in a room along with other political leaders to achieve “national reconciliation”. But, he said, Musharraf should first declare that he would not be a candidate for any post in the government.
“I think these political parties have the ability to take decisions by themselves, have the ability to carve out the future course of things; we dont have to depend on any military dictator to show us the way,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the Dawn daily in a report from London.
He said Musharraf was not eligible to contest for the presidents office, with or without uniform, “because there is no place for a dictator in democracy”.
When asked if like Benazir Bhutto he would also like to share power with Musharraf under an interim arrangement, the exiled former premier said dictatorship and democracy were two opposite things. “How can democrats share power with dictators?”
While refusing to set a firm date for his return, the former premier, accompanied by his brother Shahbaz Sharif at a press conference in London, promised to go home soon and lead his party in the forthcoming general elections.

Doubts on arrest
Regarding apprehensions that he would be arrested on landing in Pakistan, Sharif said there were no charges against him of either corruption, kickbacks or commission, “but they could fabricate cases against me, Musharraf is expert in fabricating cases against innocent and pardoning criminals if they shook hands with him.”

NAWAZ CAN’t CONTEST POLLS

Islamabad, PTI: Former premier Nawaz Sharif is disqualified to contest elections because the conviction in a plane hijack conspiracy case remains as the sentence awarded to PML-N leader was not pardoned but only remitted by General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s top law officer has said.
Attorney General Malik Qayyum said the sentence awarded to the former premier was not pardoned but remitted by the president, adding that the stigma of conviction remains.
Qayyum said the sentence of fine and property confiscation would be applicable and (Sharif) is disqualified from contesting the elections.
“The law will take its own course, whenever the petitioners come to Pakistan. A Rs 500 million fine is imposed on Nawaz Sharif in the plane conspiracy case that will be recovered through the confiscation of his property,” AG Malik Qayyum was quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper on Friday.