PTI to petition against Sharif for funding from Bin Laden

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has decided to file a petition in the court against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seek an investigation into allegations of receiving money from slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden during the 1990s, the media reported.

PTI spokesman and lawyer Fawad Chaudhry told Dawn online on Monday that his party had completed the process of internal discussions and decided after reviewing all legal aspects of the case to file the petition against Sharif and his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for "conspiring against democracy in the country after receiving money from foreign forces".

Last week, the PTI had announced that it had decided to file a petition.

Chaudhry said the time had come that the nation should be told about the secret links of Sharif with foreign forces.

The charge that Sharif had received money from the Al Qaeda chief resurfaced last year when Shamama Khalid, the wife of a former operative of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in her book claimed that the Prime Minister had "received funding from Osama bin Laden to contest elections against the Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)", reports Dawn online.

The book claims that Sharif's pledge of introducing an Islamic system had attracted bin Laden.

--IANS

ksk/bg