Islamabad: The Pakistan People’ Party (PPP) has launched an onslaught against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif following a landmark Supreme Court verdict which ruled that the 1990 general elections were rigged.
The Supreme Court in its verdict on Friday held the late President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Former Army Chief General Mirza Aslam Beg and former Head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) responsible for the manipulation of the polls.
The court ruling said hefty sums of public money were distributed to favoured politicians and groupings of political parties.
The court asked the government to conduct a probe through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) into doling out of public money to politicians, saying that those who benefited should face legal action.
Raja Riaz, a key PPP leader in Punjab, said that Nawaz Sharif became prime minister in 1990 on the basis of the results of the manipulated elections.
Riaz, who is leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, said the Election Commission should disqualify Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, current Punjab Chief Minister, from contesting the next general elections due early next year.
Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi, who belongs to PML-Q, has said politicians who had taken money should be declared disqualified because such people are not suitable for politics.
According to Elahi, Aslam Beg had offered Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, current president of PML-Q, funds for elections but he declined the offer.
Federal Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira said the investigation against the beneficiaries of the 1990 money distribution will be completed in the “shortest possible time”, adding that “a sword of diqualification hangs over their heads before the general election if their involvement of receiving money from the ISI is established”.
