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Islamabad: Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has come under fire from some politicians in his former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, blaming him for misrule leading to the humiliating defeat of the party in the February 18 elections.
Aziz left Pakistan before the elections after the dissolution of assemblies and governments in November on completion of their constitutional five-year terms.
Wajahat Hussain, a central leader in Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and brother of party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, said the party's debacle was largely due to the policies of the former prime minister.
Citing the Steel Mills privatisation bid and later the charging of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry with misconduct on March 9 that triggered a judicial and political crisis, Wajahat told a private channel that such blunders as well as economic hardship to people were behind the rout.
"Shaukat Aziz is himself now in London and strolling in Hyde Park," he said on Thursday, adding that Aziz's policies marred the fortunes of the party.
The PML-Q president avoided any comment when asked by reporters yesterday whether he shared the views of his brother.
"Forget the past; let us move forward," said Shujaat, who was trounced in the election in his native Gujrat stronghold by a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party.
President Pervez Musharraf, now facing intense pressure to step down, had said in the past that the case against Justice Chaudhry was sent to him by Shaukat Aziz and under the law he was required to send it to a judicial council.
After seizing power through a military coup in October 1999, Musharraf brought Aziz to Pakistan from a senior position in a foreign bank and appointed him finance minister and later made him prime minister despite his total lack of political experience, a decision hardly any one in the party dared to oppose.
Before leaving the country Aziz had a meeting with Musharraf who praised the economic turn-around the country achieved during his premiership, something the president frequently boasted was the main achievement of his era.
But in the months ahead of the elections, the law and order situation in the country sharply deteriorated amid a wave of terrorist attacks including suicide bombings, surge in inflation, acute shortages of basic food items and power and gas crisis.
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