NEW YORK, May 17: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) president Shahbaz Sharif has said he is planning to return to Pakistan by the end of June or in July despite the constraints placed on him by an agreement with the Saudi government.

In a bitter-sweet reflection on his incarceration and eventual exile to Saudi Arabia under the agreement with the Saudi government, Mr Sharif said in an interview with Dawn here at the weekend: “I don’t think the Saudi government would have any objections to my return to Pakistan if the political and military government of Pakistan does not object.” But he emphasized that he would not be returning to Pakistan as part of any deal with Islamabad.

Conceding that there was a detailed understanding between the Saudi government and his family which barred his return Pakistan for 10 years, Mr Sharif nevertheless insisted: “There was emotional blackmail. I was forced out of my country against my wishes by the powers that be.”

He added: “They said that if I don’t agree to leave, then my family would suffer in Pakistan, but I resisted leaving the country till the last minute.”

However, he also acknowledged that the Saudi government would object to his plans to return if the Pakistani government said no, adding “I am not looking at that scenario at all.”

Mr Sharif, who is recovering from a life-threatening cancer which was removed at New York’s Sloane Kettering Memorial hospital, said that as soon as the doctors gave him a go ahead he would leave New York for Pakistan.

“I want to go back to my country sooner than later. I want to be with my loved ones, my people and want to pass the rest of my life there,” he said.

When pressed about the deal that his family accepted from the Saudi government, Mr Sharif quoted African leader Nelson Mandela who observed in his memoirs “you cannot expect a deal from a prisoner. He cannot negotiate.”

Responding to the charges of looting and plundering made against his family by the military government and politicians like former president Farooq Leghari, Mr Sharif said: “If they want to arrest me, let them do so. But there is no conviction against me, no case of corruption, no charges of shady deals against me personally.”

Asked to explain his government’s incarceration of Asif Zardari and its conduct in forcing the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto, Mr Sharif regretted the actions, saying: “In Asif Zardari’s case we did not jail him. It was President Leghari who had jailed him.” As for forcing Ms Bhutto into exile, Mr Sharif at first said on the record: “Let me reveal this secret to you. I tried to counsel my brother, the prime minister and Saifur Rehman (in charge of the accountability cell) against going after Ms Bhutto, but then he went off the record while giving details, saying he did not want to offend anyone.

Similarly, when asked to reflect on his family’s Raiwind estate which was presented as evidence by the military government in charging the Sharif family with looting the country, Mr Shahbaz Sharif hedged the question, saying “In principle I am against big houses. They were built by my father and brother from their own money.”

But then the former Punjab chief minister went on to defend construction of a highway into Raiwind estate during his tenure, which he insisted took place only after the biggest Trust Hospital, called Sharif Complex, which houses a school also was built there. “That was essential to provide the people of Pakistan with latest technology in heart, lung and kidney transplants,” he said.

When asked to state his position on the Legal Framework Order, Mr Sharif, who has been calling for a government of national reconciliation to restore democracy, said: “I believe that the constitution of the country must be held supreme in the national interest.

“This is a transitional period. The transfer of power to the civilian government is still going on, and the political parties should show flexibility in reaching an agreement with the treasury benches.” Mr Sharif said that the political parties should move forward to build the country. “There should be a national reconciliation to save democracy and they should stop looking up to GHQ for changes every time problems occur.”

Granting that the PML was as guilty as other parties in looking up to the army to change governments in the past, Mr Sharif suggested that “all political parties should take an oath never to seek intervention from the army. We should move forward and in the next 10 years change the destiny and course of the country.”

On the army’s role in government, Mr Sharif said that “this is a difficult question,” but went on to state: “We should learn lessons from the past and create a mechanism to slowly put the army back in the barracks and leave it to its fundamental role as defender of the country’s borders.”