Pak Foreign Ministry contradicts Azizs statement on Sharifs deportation

Prime Minister Shaukat Azizs sworn statement in the Supreme Court on Nawaz Sharifs deportation case has been implicitly contradicted by his own Foreign Ministry which hints that Aziz was aware of what was going on.

Islamabad, Oct 28 : Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's sworn statement in the Supreme Court on Nawaz Sharif's deportation case has been implicitly contradicted by his own Foreign Ministry which hints that Aziz was aware of what was going on.

Both Secretary Foreign Affairs Riaz Mohammad Khan and his Additional Secretary/Chief of Protocol Nazir Hussain have talked of Aziz's verbal instructions for the requisition of an aircraft from the PIA and its placement at Islamabad Airport.

In another interesting twist, while the top Foreign Ministry mandarins denied that they were aware of the destination of the same aircraft or had passed on any direction to PIA in this regard.

The PIA chairman's affidavit said that the airline did receive verbal instructions from the ministry to make arrangements for a possible flight to Jeddah.

The apex court is presently hearing the contempt of court case and the next date of hearing is October 30. A seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is hearing the case.

Earlier, Aziz, Chief Minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and heads of all other agencies involved in the forced deportation of Nawaz Sharif on September 10 have pleaded innocent in the apex court.

Aziz said that he had no part in any alleged conspiracy to flout the court order.

What emerges from these high-level responses is that none of the agencies or authorities is ready to accept the responsibility and most say some "unidentified characters" whisked Sharif away.

In replies submitted to the Court in the contempt case, Aziz prayed that his name might be struck off from the list of contemnors while Elahi also denied involvement and asked for the dismissal of the petition.

ANI