I was asleep when the Army took over — Shahbaz Sharif

KARACHI, MARCH 9: The brother of deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif told a Karachi anti-terrorism court on Thursday that he was asleep...

KARACHI, MARCH 9: The brother of deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif told a Karachi anti-terrorism court on Thursday that he was asleep when the army seized power in their October coup. Shahbaz Sharif, the former Chief Minister of Punjab province, also insisted that he had not met the Prime Minister on the day of the coup last year.

Shahbaz, together with his brother Nawaz and five former senior government officials, has been charged with hijacking, abduction, attempted murder and terrorism in a case based on the developments on the night of the coup. All the accused have pleaded not guilty but face the death penalty if convicted.

"As luck would have it, I did not have the opportunity to meet the Prime Minister throughout that fateful day of October 12," Shahbaz Sharif told the court in a brief statement.

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"I was in Islamabad on that day to hold a meeting with the Japanese ambassador and the Interior Minister. In the Prime Minister’s house, I had been allocated a bedroom and an office, and I had retired for some rest," he said. "I was woken up in the evening when the army entered the Prime Minister’s house."

Prosecutors say the former Prime Minister sacked his army Chief, General Pervez Musharraf, and then tried to stop a commercial jet carrying the General from landing in Pakistan, risking the lives of the 198 people on board.

Musharraf only landed after the army seized the airport, and within hours he had taken over the country.

"The prosecution witnesses have not said anything against me. There is no case against me," Shahbaz Sharif said.

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His brother Nawaz has accused the military of plotting the coup for some time and then inventing the charges against him. "This case has been framed against me at the behest of General Pervez Musharraf," the former Prime Minister said on Wednesday.

All seven defendants have now given evidence, denying the charges. "We are not going to produce witnesses from the defence side," defence lawyer Mansoor Malik told reporters.

Defence and prosecution lawyers were meeting in-chambers with the judge on Thursday to discuss when to begin summing up the case.