Ex-friends disloyalty disappointed me: Musharraf
Published: April 27, 2011
Former president says Shaukat Aziz should have defended policies, Gen Qayyum is a sycophant. KARACHI:
Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that he was saddened by the disloyalty of his former friends General Shahid and General Qayyum.
Musharraf had stepped down as president in August 2008 to avoid impeachment after ruling the country for nine-odd years. Subsequently, his former protgs in the army and politics had deserted him after he went into self-exile.
General Qayyum was a sycophant. I had always promoted him, I made him chief of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories Wah and then head of the Pakistan Steel Mills. But in the end he ditched me, Musharraf told Express News in an exclusive interview in Dubai on Tuesday.
About Gen Shahid, Musharraf said that he had appointed him as chief of the National Accountability Bureau. But he was sacked after he turned against me and started finding faults with our policies, he added. Musharraf described both as weak of character.
The former president said that he was disappointed by former prime minister Shaukat Aziz. He should have defended his policies after leaving the country, Musharraf said.
Musharraf had introduced Shaukat Aziz, who had no political background, as a finance minister and then got him elected as prime minister. Musharraf agreed with the interviewer that Aziz was a suitcase prime minister who apparently had little interest in Pakistan. However, Musharrraf revealed that Aziz was still in contact with him and they often meet in Dubai and London.
He also defended the 2007 sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry which had finally led to his downfall. The reference against Justice Chaudhry was sent by the prime minister and I, after examining its constitutional and legal aspects, sent it to the Supreme Judicial Council for further action, Musharraf said.
The former dictator also defended the killing of Baloch chieftain Nawaz Akbar Bugti and his two grandsons in a controversial security operation in 2006. He admitted that India was involved in destabilising Balochistan.
Replying to a question about his deal with slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, the former general said that she was demanding abolition of Article 58 (2)b from the Constitution, lifting of ban on third-time premiership, and scrapping of graft cases against her and her spouse.
Musharraf said under the deal Benazir had agreed that she would return to Pakistan after the 2008 general elections. But she violated the agreement and came back
before the elections in 2007, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2011.
