A former Pakistani legislator on Monday denied accusations by a senior minister that he was involved in an al-Qaeda-masterminded plot to launch suicide attacks around Islamabad earlier this month. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had told local Geo television that Javed Ibrahim Paracha was "the main planner" of foiled Independence Day attacks on the parliament, military headquarters, the US embassy, President Pervez Musharraf's residence and his office. Hayat also said that the plot had been masterminded by an Egyptian Qaeda suspect named Sheikh Esa, alias Qari Ismail. Paracha, who was a member of parliament between 1997 and 1999 with the then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League, rejected the accusations and said he was suing Hayat. "I have sued Faisal Saleh Hayat and challenged him to prove allegations he has levelled against me," Paracha said on phone from Peshawar. "I do not have any link with terrorism in any manner," he added.
Paracha belonged to the pro-Taliban party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam before joining the PML, and now heads an organisation of the Sunni Muslim majority known as the Supreme Sunni Council. He lives in conservative North West Frontier Province. |