LAHORE, Nov 6: Pakistan’s Consulate-General in Jeddah has received 20 applications from the Sharif family for passports, but all of them are incomplete one way or the other, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Sunday.
The consul-general, according to the sources, has sought instructions from the government on whether he should strictly follow the rules or be flexible on the question of formalities.
“The documents are being processed and passports would be issued in due course,” said the sources.
The sources said that computerized national ID cards and birth certificates of children born in Saudi Arabia during the Sharifs’ exile had not been attached with the applications.
Similarly, they said, passports of at least half a dozen applicants were still valid for more than six months because of which they could not be issued new passports immediately.
If the applicants met all formalities or the Foreign Office decided to show flexibility, passports would be issued without delay, the sources said.
“There is no question of discrimination. We are treating them like other Pakistani citizens.”
Answering a question, the sources said if an applicant had an old ID card and had already applied for a computerised ID card to be issued by Nadra, the consulate would give him passport of one-year validity only. However, on production of the computerised ID card subsequently, the validity of the same passport would be extended to five years.
An urgent passport is issued within 24 hours on completion of all formalities, the sources said. The Sharifs had been exiled to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 for a period of 10 years.
However, former Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif was allowed to leave the kingdom on humanitarian grounds for treatment in USA. Subsequently, he shifted to London and has been there for several months. His wife Nusrat Shahbaz has been in Pakistan for many months and their two daughters and two sons are also in Pakistan.
Mian Nawaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz want to accompany their son Hasan Nawaz, who is suffering from an as yet undiagnosed disease, to London.
The family of Mian Abbas Sharif will also go with the family of the exiled former prime minister.
