May 22, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19,1424

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NEW YORK, May 21: Information Minister Shaikh Rashid said on Tuesday that he would not meet Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) president Shahbaz Sharif during his New York visit, asserting: “I have come here to attend a convention of Pakistanis in Chicago.”

Talking to reporters at the residence of Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sheikh Rashid said: “He (Sharif) left Pakistan of his own will. He can do what he wants.”

Responding to queries about Mr Sharif’s plans to return to Pakistan and whether there was a deal in the making, he said: “I do not do things in secret. If I were to meet him it would be an open meeting.”

In an interview with Dawn last Friday, Mr Shahbaz Sharif had said that he planned to return to Pakistan by the end of June or July after his doctors give him permission.

Mr Sharif, who underwent what he called a “life-saving” operation to remove a malignant tumour from his intestines, said that he hoped that the Pakistan government would not object to his return despite seeking exile in Saudi Arabia under an agreement.

Mr Sharif said that the information minister had not contacted him during his New York visit.