LONDON: General Pervez Musharraf – former Pakistani president –said on Monday that he had to let Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif go as Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah had advised him to, a local news channel reported.
Musharraf said that King Abdullah had told him that Nawaz was a personal friend. He said that when he visited Saudi Arabia early in 2000, King Abdullah advised him that blood once spilled would never wash away.
“He gave me this advice. It was a good advice and I had never wanted to spill any blood anyway,” the former president said.
He said that he never wanted Nawaz to be hanged.
“Kind Abdullah has always thought of me as a younger brother and he genuinely felt so. I had no plans to spill any blood anyway. I was never going to hang Nawaz. It couldn’t be done,” Musharraf said.
Musharraf further cited King Abdullah that ‘Nawaz was the head of Pakistan and had developed relations with us and when somebody develops relations with me [King Abdullah], I owe some sincerity to him’.
“Later Lebanon President Rafique Hariri – who had become a very good friend of mine and had very close relations with King Abdullah as well – told me that the king was offended with me as I hadn’t fulfilled some request by him,” Musharraf said.
The former president further said that he then went to Saudi Arabia and asked the king what the issue was – to which the king clearly replied that Nawaz will come to Saudi Arabia and ‘I could run Pakistan’.
“There were 14 members in my cabinet and they all listened to me,” Musharraf said – when asked if he had to face any troubles while convincing his cabinet or the other senior military men.
