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Ousted Prime Minister 'mentally shattered' before departure

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December 13, 2000 

ISLAMABAD-- (UNB/AP) - Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was in good health and spirits, despite a Pakistani army official's claim Tuesday that the former leader spent his final days in prison "staring for hours at the wall."

"Thank God for the gift of health. My morale is high and my health continues to improve," the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz quoted Sharif, who was freed and sent into exile in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Sharif underwent medical tests in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah, where he gave the interview. He was expected to leave for the Saudi capital of Riyadh within a few days, the Saudi paper reported Tuesday.

In the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, army spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi said Sharif left prison with a broken spirit.

"He was mentally shattered. We were receiving reports that he was spending his days just staring for hours at the wall," Quereshi told The Associated Press in an interview.

Quereshi said doctors examined Sharif, who was diagnosed with high blood pressure and a heart ailment.

"But they said to us his condition was stable. It wasn't an emergency or there wasn't any danger of a heart attack," he said.

Sharif's forced exile with 18 family members was a surprise to many. The Saudi royal family brokered his release by Pakistan's military government.

Sharif had been jailed since his elected government was toppled in a bloodless coup in October 1999 by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who accused him of corruption, misrule and leading the country to financial chaos.

Sharif was serving a life sentence for kidnapping, hijacking and abuse of power for ordering the hijacking of a plane carrying Musharraf, whom he had fired before the coup. His sentence was commuted, but he was ordered to forfeit property valued at dlrs 100 million and pay a dlrs 500,000 fine.

Many Pakistanis who believed the new government could rein in corruption are enraged that Sharif was set free.

"If Mr. Sharif was guilty of all that the nation was told that he was, then he should have paid for it. Instead, he is at large savoring his billions, which he made from Pakistan, in the comfort of perfect hosts and with all his family," The News editorialized.

In a statement, the Muttaheda Qami Movement, an ethnic-based party, accused the government of creating double standard - "one for the elite of the society and the other for the poor masses."

Ousted prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose husband has been in jail since her government's dismissal on corruption charges in 1996, rejected speculation that he will seek clemency from the army and exile outside Pakistan.

Bhutto, who divides her time between England and the United Arab Emirates, also has been convicted in absentia of corruption, sentenced to five years in jail and barred from politics for 21 years.

"To satisfy its greed and hunger the regime flouted the law and let the Sharifs go, but the Pakistan People's Party is opposed to the politics of double standard," said a statement from Bhutto's party.

Sharif "is an immensely wealthy man and he was using that money in all spheres of Pakistani society to spread what I call a cancer, the cancer of corruption through our society. He was a bad influence," Quereshi said.

Sharif's relatives deny they had sought clemency for the former leader.

Musharraf never explained why he let Sharif go, but Quereshi reiterated that it "was in the best interest of the people of Pakistan and the country."

But few in Pakistan appear to agree.

A cartoon on Tuesday's front page of the English language newspaper, The Nation, poked fun at Pakistan's judicial system depicting a convicted criminal telling a judge: "I accept the verdict your honor, but can I go to Saudi Arabia instead?"