April 4, 2003	Friday	Safar 1, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, April 3: The wife and two daughters of exiled PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif are expected to return here from the United States on Saturday or Sunday.

Daughters Javairia and Rabia are coming to get married, and some sources say that after the marriage, they will not be returning to Saudi Arabia.

The government has allowed them in relaxation of the agreement under which the exiled members are supposed to stay out of the country for ten years.

This will be the second time that they will be visiting their country after being banished to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 along with 15 other members of the Sharif family.

Begum Nusrat Shahbaz and the two daughters had earlier come to Pakistan in November 2001. However, they had to leave the country when some newspapers attributed political statements to the wife of the former Punjab chief minister. The government took the statements as breach of agreement and told the three to leave Pakistan without delay.

Official sources say they are not aware when members of Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s family will be coming to Pakistan or how long they plan to stay here.

It may be pointed out that the family of Mian Abbas Sharif, which had come to Pakistan some weeks back to participate in various wedding ceremonies, have still not gone back to Saudi Arabia and they have no intention to do so.

Hamza Shahbaz, the only member of the Sharif family who as guarantor for the outstanding loans of the family’s industrial units was not sent out, is returning home on Saturday.

He was allowed to visit his father in New York from where he flew to Saudi Arabia to meet family.

So far, it is not clear how long Mian Shahbaz Sharif will stay in the US. Party leaders say that the PML-N president is unlikely to return to Saudi Arabia.