Sharif brothers tried to assassinate me twice, claims Zardari

Zardari’s statements come at a time when political circles have said he may be entering an understanding with the country’s military high command.

Former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has claimed that ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif twice planned to assassinate him.

Former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari. (Reuters File)

His statements come at a time when political circles have said that Zardari may be entering an understanding with the country’s military high command.

Zardari, 62, told party workers in Lahore that Nawaz and Shehbaz plotted his murder when he was serving a eight-year sentence in connection with corruption cases filed against him. He said the Sharif brothers planned to kill him when he was going to a court to attend his hearing. In another incident, the Sharif brothers ordered jailers to cut out his tongue, he claimed.

“The Sharif brothers twice planned my murder in captivity in 1990s,” Zardari said, adding that he would not honour an agreement signed between his deceased wife Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz, called the “charter of democracy”. Under the charter, both parties were supposed to support each other when under threat from non-democratic forces.

He said: “I have not yet forgotten what they (the Sharifs) have done to Benazir Bhutto and me. We forgave them. They cannot be trusted this time around and I will not shake hands with them.”