PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday denounced US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher for urging Pakistanis to focus on other pressing issues instead of deciding the fate of President Pervez Musharraf.

"This is our internal matter and we do not need any external advice on the issue," Nawaz Sharif said while talking to newsmen at the Islamabad Airport before leaving for London. "What we have to do with Musharraf, who is an unconstitutional president, is our internal matter. This is not Pakistan`s external affair, and we do not need any external advice on this," Nawaz said.

Boucher at a press conference on Wednesday said that "Musharraf is not an issue or problem which Pakistan is facing right now". He rather emphasised on focusing on issues like food, the energy crisis and militancy.

About his recent meeting with the US envoy, the PML-N Quaid said he had told the US official that Pakistan`s internal affairs had to be looked after by the government without any external interference.

Nawaz said the government did not consult the PML-N before taking key decisions like the operation in the Khyber Agency and increase in the petroleum and gas prices. In this connection, referring to the recent operation in the Khyber Agency, he said the coalition partners during a high-level meeting had agreed to adopt a policy of dialogue in the tribal areas.

"I do not know what caused the change in the policy," he said. He maintained that all important matters should be discussed in the National Assembly. Nawaz also expressed disappointment over the government`s failure to restore the deposed judges, saying he had impressed upon the PPP co-chairman to give top priority to resolving the judges issue.

He mentioned Asif Ali Zardari and he had made a public commitment to restoring the deposed judges."If commitments were not fulfilled at this level then at what level?" he questioned.He said his party withdrew its ministers from the federal cabinet after the coalition government did not meet the deadline on judges` restoration.

"We made this sacrifice for a cause as we have to restore the judges, the 1973 Constitution; we have to restore the rule of law and we have to make parliament sovereign," he said. He observed parliament was not acting as a sovereign institution.

To a question about the lawyer community`s strategy to stage another long march, he said the PML-N would continue its support for the lawyers` movement. Nawaz Sharif is visiting London to take care of his wife who is hospitalised in London.

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