Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif, who was deported shortly after his return to Pakistan from a seven-year exile, on Monday said President Pervez Musharraf's "ego and stubborness" was responsible for him not being able to stay in his own country.
"It is only Musharraf's ego and his stubborness that is standing in my way," Sharif told ARY TV Channel at the Islamabad Airport Lounge, as he waited for the authorities' plan of action after his aircraft landed from London.
Describing as painful the situation he was in, the 57-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-N leader regretted that he and his supporters who accompanied him from London were not able to make any telephonic contact with the outside world after their arrival in Islamabad.
"This indicates the sorry state of affairs in the country. Emigration should be allowed. I should get my vehicle and be allowed to start my journey," he said.
Sharif had planned to hit the road to reach Lahore after reaching Islamabad.
Sharif said telephones were not working and that they were all jammed. "Telephones in the plane were jammed. Phones in the lounge were jammed," he said.
"The government as I told you earlier doesn't believe in any ethics, morality, law. We were right here. You know what happened in the plane. We kept sitting in the plane for more than an hour and then things have never happened like that," Sharif said.(
"This is a very painful situation. Obviously there should be emigration and our people should have been here. There should have been vehicles so that we could proceed towards Lahore. There are no vehicles here and no people. Everywhere, the government has put in barricades, big trailers have been put on the bridges," he said.
Asked whether there were any pending cases against him, Sharif said he was not aware about them.
"I don't know anything. No one has served me with an arrest warrant. No one has told me where will I be taken to. They treated me like this soon after my arrival," he said.
"If my phone would have been working, I would have called my party leadership. I don't know even where they are. Yesterday, it was in news that all leaders have been arrested. Qazi Hussain,Javed Hashmi - arrested. But we are sitting here, you also sit here.As the situation changes, you will get to know," Sharif told the TV reporter.
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