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| 26 April 2004 | Monday | 05 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Shahbaz's return Pakistan's internal affair: S. Arabia
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, April 25: Many in the government still believe that exiled PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif will not return to Pakistan anytime soon, despite his claims.
On the other hand the Saudi ambassador to Islamabad says his plan to return home is Pakistan's internal affair and he (envoy) will not like to comment on the issue. A senior leader of the ruling PML-Q said on Sunday that if Mian Shahbaz came to Pakistan in violation of the so-called exile accord, a special plane would immediately take him to Jeddah where he would be handed over to the Saudi authorities.
Ambassador Ali Awadh Al-Asseri said while talking to Dawn that Pakistan's Foreign Office was in a better position to answer questions concerning reports about Shahbaz's return. "I'll not be able to comment on these reports," he said.
Asked: "Does it mean that the Saudi government has no objection to his return to Pakistan?".He said: "Please, don't put these words into my mouth." Asked if he was aware of any agreement barring Mian Shahbaz from returning to Pakistan, Mr Al-Asseri said if there was any such accord, it might have been reached before his posting in Islamabad.
Sources in the ruling party, on a suggestion that the agreement should be made public to prevent the Sharifs from flouting it, claimed that there was a provision in the accord which prohibited both the countries from doing so.
They said the government was in contact with Saudi Arabia on the matter and claimed that the Saudi government would not like Mian Shahbaz to violate the accord. In case he did that, he would be flown to the kingdom where he would face the same restrictions his elder brother Mian Nawaz Sharif had been facing since his banishment in December 2000.
Meanwhile, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said in a statement here on Sunday that the former chief minister had submitted a "request for pardon" before being allowed to go to the kingdom along with other members of the family.
He said Mian Shahbaz was 'not required' to make such a petition because, unlike his brother Nawaz Sharif, he had not been convicted in any case at the time. He said the exiled members of the Sharif family would have to stay out of the country for 10 years.
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