ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: Pakistan Army has denied reports that its chief general Jehangir Karamat had asked Farooq Ahmed Leghari to resign as President and said he had rather advised him not to do so. ``Contrary to what is being reported, the Chief of the Army Staff never asked the former President to resign, nor does he have the authority to do so,'' a spokesman of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Friday night.``In fact, the Army chief repeatedly urged the former President not to resign,'' he said.The Army also took strong exception to what he called ``distorted versions'' presented by media of the recent political crisis which led to Leghari's exit last Tuesday after he refused to pass a reference against Supreme Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who has since gone on leave.The spokesman stressed the Army remained uninvolved and impartial, strictly confining itself to its constitutional obligations.``Rumours and insinuations to the contrary are unfounded and harmful to national interest,'' the spokesman said.Interestingly, the Pakistan government thanked the Army earlier this week for its ``positive'' role in resolving the crisis, saying the entire nation appreciated ``its commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law and the democratic political system''.Local media had earlier reported that Leghari had resigned after Karamat refused to back him in a move to dismiss the government after a bench-led by Shah armed the President with powers to dissolve the National Assembly.Meanwhile, less than a week after accusing each other of hatching conspiracies and violating the Constitution, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former President Leghari have said they harboured no bitterness for each other after their recent spat but both claimed they were right.Leghari, responding to a letter from Sharif in this regard, said the constitutional crisis which arose from the Government's tussle with judiciary reflected a ``conflict'' between their perceptions of national interest. In the unexpected exchange of letters on Friday, both the dramatis personae in the crisis which paralysed the country's polity for over three months, threatening at one stage even the fate of the Nawaz Sharif Government, said they bore no malice towards each other, but each claimed he was right.Addressing Leghari as ``my dear Sardar Sahib'' in his letter three days after the former's exit, Sharif said, ``I believe that your decision to step down was taken by you in the best national interest.''``The divergence in our perceptions of issues at the Centre of the recent crisis and the consequent bitterness that plagued our relationship has no longer any relevance,'' the Prime Minister's letter delivered at the Aiwan-E-Sadar said. Leghari, in his reply, agreed, saying ``you are right that there was divergence in our perceptions of the issue,'' and added, ``my consideration of the national interest is clearly different from yours''.He said the recent events, that led to his exit and a deep division in the judiciary reflected a conflict between ``fundamentally dissimilar perceptions and attitudes'' towards the law and Constitution.
