Dubai, Aug 31 - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday that parliament would decide whether or not former president Pervez Musharraf should be tried for tampering with the constitution and sacking the Supreme Court judges after imposing an emergency in November 2007.

Gilani made the remarks while speaking to reporters during a visit here, Online news agency reported.

Earlier this month, Gilani said 'we should do what is doable' on the Musharraf trial. He urged the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to stop playing to the gallery on the issue.

His reasoning was that the trial could commence only if there was unanimity in parliament on the issue, an indication that religious parties like the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) might not come on board.

However, in a front-paged story August 21, The News daily said that Gilani 'was actually alluding to those unwritten assurances provided to Musharraf by the ruling coalition, the military leadership and Pakistan's trusted international friends in the week that followed his resignation from the office on Monday, August 18, last year'.

It cited multiple sources 'with direct knowledge of what happened in the corridors of power' Aug 11-18 last year as saying that the deal that finally saw Musharraf's departure was cobbled together by top leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, Britain's special envoy to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant and an emissary of the Saudi Arabian king.

'The bottom line of this deal was to grant Pervez Musharraf a graceful departure from the presidency with guarantees that there would no impeachment or court proceedings against him in future,' said a senior official with direct knowledge of what happened in the decisive week.

'There is no guarantee of what happens to Musharraf in the distant future, but the deal promises no official disgrace for Musharraf under the present government,' the official added.