LAHORE, Aug 24: ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan is due to leave here on Monday on a four-state visit during which he will also meet former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif. Some other political leaders will also be accompanying him. The senior leader, along with other ARD colleagues, repatedly called upon the government to allow the former prime ministers to return to Pakistan. He also sent messages to the leaders, who twice alternated each other in power, to come back to Pakistan no matter the government arrests or deports them. It is expected that in his meetings with the two he will discuss the matter with them. “The entire nation is fed up with the present rulers. The day the two ex-PMs stage a comeback, they’ll become leaders again”, sources close to the ARD chief say, arguing why Ms Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif should return home. The ARD has launched a mass contact campaign aimed at mounting pressure on the government to take back the Legal Framework Order. The octogenarian leader believes that the campaign will gather momentum within no time with the two leaders’ presence in the country. Ms Bhutto had left the country in 1999, only days before being convicted in a corruption case. However, the sentence was set aside by the Supreme Court, which also remanded the case. The retrial is yet to begin. The Sharifs were banished to Saudi Arabia in December, 2000, and according to official claims, can’t come back before spending 10 years in exile.

The Nawabzada will first go to London where Ms Bhutto is organizing a reception for him.

In London, the ARD chief is also expected to meet former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who had resigned from the office on account of differences with Prime Minister Tony Blair on the Iraq policy. He is opposed to the invasion of Iraq.

After spending some days in the British capital, the ARD leader will fly to France and then Germany, the two EU countries also opposed to US-UK invasion and occupation of Iraq. On the last leg of his visit, the Nawabzada will fly to Saudi Arabia where he will be meeting Mian Nawaz Sharif. He will also perform Umra.