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Make deal with Sharief public: Pak cabinet

Pakistan's federal cabinet asked military ruler General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday to make public the details of the deals made with exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharief last week.

"Most of the cabinet members suggested that the request for pardon made by Sharief should be made public," an official statement issued after the cabinet meeting said.

The Musharraf cabinet, which was in the dark till the last moment about this shock decision of the military establishment to exile Sharief, approved the move.

"It would reduce polarisation and bring harmony to the political scene," the cabinet said.

Sharief, along with 18 family members, was exiled to Saudi Arabia early Sunday morning after President Rafiq Tarar pardoned him but upheld the court's decision to confiscate his property and the fine and the ban against holding public office for 21 years.

Sharief was serving a life term in Attock Fort after a Karachi court convicted him in plane hijacking and terrorism case. He was also convicted in a tax evasion case, popularly known as the helicopter case, by an accountability court.

There have been reports that Sharief's pardon and immediate exile to Saudi Arabia had damaged the military government's credibility among the masses because the government had been making repeated claims of launching across-the-board accountability.

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