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| 12 May 2004 | Wednesday | 21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Shahbaz tried to resist deportation
LAHORE, May 11: PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif tried to resist his deportation, but security personnel took hardly 15 minutes to complete the job.
According to a government official, who took part in the operation, the plane carrying the former chief minister was cordoned off as soon as it landed at the Allama Iqbal Airport at around 6:10pm.
After disembarking from the plane, Mian Shahbaz kissed the soil before he was taken to a vehicle parked nearby and to a special Jeddah-bound PIA plane, the official said. The plane was parked at the old airport.
"The whole process was completed in no time. Even immigration officials were not allowed to check his travel documents which otherwise is a legal formality," he said. However, Mian Shahbaz kept on arguing with the authorities all the time on the legality of their action. A group of doctors, nurses and commandos accompanied him to Saudi Arabia, he said.
Over 100 other passengers, including journalists, were made to sit in the lounge till the plane for Jeddah took off. After the take-off, the other passengers were told to complete their immigration formalities.
BBC correspondent Zafar Abbas, who was accompanying Shahbaz Sharif from Abu Dhabi and filming the whole episode, said that supporters raised slogans as the plane was preparing to land in Lahore. He alleged that law enforcement personnel confiscated cameras of journalists who tried to take snaps.
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