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| 05 May 2004 | Wednesday | 14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Shahbaz to 'return on 11th'
LAHORE, May 4: Pakistan Muslim League-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif has decided to end his 'forced exile' and return to Pakistan on May 11. According to his spokesman, he will land at the Lahore airport.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the spokesman, Farrukh Shah, said the former Punjab chief minister would travel to Lahore via Abu Dhabi in a Gulf Air flight on Tuesday (May 11) evening. The flight is scheduled to land at 6.20pm.
However, some well-placed PML-N party sources and relatives of Mian Shahbaz told Dawn that they were unaware of any such travel plan. "The plan of Mian Shahbaz's return has not yet been finalized. His return home largely depends on the outcome of the ongoing talks between the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on the issue", they said.
Some sources also claimed that the director-general of the ISI was in Saudi Arabia to urge the Saudi authorities to ensure the implementation of the much talked about deal that had paved way for the voluntary exile, of Mian Nawaz Sharif and his family members for 10 years in December 2000.
Though the PML-N president claims that he did not want to leave the country and was forced into exile, the Pakistan government insists that he had left at his own will.
In the meantime, some important leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim (Q), including its president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi have dismissed reports of Mian Shahbaz's decision to return to Pakistan as nothing but a media exercise.
It may be mentioned that the PML-N has taken no practical steps to motivate its workers in Lahore and other cities in the province to come to the airport to welcome their leader.
Meanwhile, PML-N sources alleged that police were continuing to raid residences and offices of leaders and activists of the party to intimidate and harass them. The party said dozens of their activists had been detained.
Police, however, said they had taken into custody only 13 PML-N workers on charges of distributing 'provocative' literature. FIA sources said that law-enforcement agencies had deployed their personnel at the Lahore airport to prevent PML-N activists from converging there to greet Mian Shahbaz.
Tahir Siddiqi adds from Karachi: Sources told Dawn that authorities at the airports had been asked to check passenger manifests of all incoming international flights.
They said the task to check the manifests had been assigned to the Civil Aviation Authority which would immediately inform the immigration if Mian Shahbaz's name was found in any list of incoming passengers.
The sources also said that lists of passengers of all incoming flights from abroad were being thoroughly checked since Monday. The authorities checked the passenger manifests of over 36 international flights which landed in Karachi on Tuesday, they added.
Shafiq Ahmad adds from Peshawar: The government has instructed immigration authorities at international airports to take Mian Shahbaz into custody in case of his landing at any airport, according to official sources.
They told Dawn that the PML-N chief might not be deported immediately after disembarkation and instructions issued by the Federal Investigation Agency to the immigration authorities suggested that he would be detained.
According to the sources, Director Immigration Sharif Virk has verbally instructed Deputy Director of Immigration, Peshawar, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, to keep the PML-N leader at the airport till agency personnel took him into their custody.
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