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Sharief's wife confident he will be exonerated

The wife of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharief has voiced confidence that Pakistan's legal system will absolve him of any wrongdoing. ''Our judges have given the best of judgements in the most difficult of times,'' Kulsoom Nawaz said. ''After all they too are Muslims, they know that there is a superpower who is watching all this. No one can escape the grip of Allah and the judges should understand this,'' she said.

Sharief is accused of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted murder and hijacking -- a charge which carries the death sentence -- in Karachi, and contempt of court in Islamabad. Kulsoom was speaking last night after travelling to Peshawar from Islamabad, where the Supreme Court said it would start hearing the contempt of court case against Sharief and members of his ousted ruling party from January 12.

The contempt charges stem from an incident when the Supreme Court was invaded by a mob in 1997 during Sharief's constitutional showdown with the then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who was removed from his post shortly afterward.

''These are fabricated stories from a to z. Those who know my husband will vouch that he would not even hurt a fly,'' she said. Kulsoom said she would not be asking Pakistan's new military government, led by General Pervez Musharraf, for lenience. ''I would appeal to Allah and then ask my people to help me,'' she said. Kulsoom said the charges were framed by the military to justify their coup. ''They have no evidence whatsoever,'' she said.

Kulsoom said her family had faced 268 criminal cases regarding corruption and tax evasion during Benazir Bhutto's government but nothing could be proved. She dismissed media charges that Sharief was corrupt or had abused his power to enrich himself while in office. ''God has given us so much that we need not indulge in corruption,'' she said.

Kulsoom said all this before talking to senior members of Sharief's Pakistan Muslim League, but played down speculation that she might become actively involved in politics. ''I am a housewife. I have been forced by circumstances to come out and work as a messenger between my jailed husband and the party workers. I have a limited programme. I am not here to give guidelines and directives to the party. That is the duty of the party leadership,'' she claimed.

UNI

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