17 April 2004	Saturday	26 Safar 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 16: Some members of the Sharif family, which had left the country in December 2000 for Saudi Arabia after allegedly striking a deal with the military government, would be able to return to Pakistan in December 2005.

Sources said that under the agreement some members of the family might be able to return to the country after passing five years abroad. The exile period of 10 years applied to former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif but not to the whole of the family, they said.

The written agreement, an official said, was with the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and hardly any civilian had seen it. The government was confident that former chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif would not come to the country even after the permission that the Supreme Court granted him while dismissing his petition, the official said.

The official said the lawyer of Shahbaz Sharif, Malik Qayyum, had stated in the Supreme Court that if the apex court assured that he will not be deported, he would take the first available flight home. "More than a week has passed but Shahbaz Sharif is not in sight," he said.

Sources said the Sharif family members were granted pardon only in the decided cases and the pending cases could be relisted for hearing. Despite claims by the government at the time of the agreement that the family had agreed to hand over 80 per cent of its assets in return for permission to leave the country, it still controlled those with the exception of a home in Lahore and two non-performing industrial units, sources said. Shahbaz Sharif's son Hamza Shahbaz is running the businesses.