LAHORE, Nov 7: The Pakistan consulate-general in Jeddah did not issue passport to former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and members of his family on Monday as formalities could not be completed, Dawn has learnt.
Sources said applicants who had passports valid for six or more months would not be provided new ones, despite requests, as the rules did not permit it.
The government, the sources said, was taking a lenient view and would issue passports to the applicants for five years, although they could be given passports only for one year in the absence of computerized national identity cards, according to the rules.
The sources said the passports would be issued during the next few days — maybe on Tuesday.
Mr Sharif’s spokesman Farrukh Shah said a representative of the family had been called by the consulate on Tuesday.
A statement issued by Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) information secretary Siddiqul Farooq quoted Mr Sharif’s son-in-law Mohammad Safdar as saying: “We believe we’ll get passports tomorrow (Tuesday) without any difficulty.”
In all, 18 passports are expected to be issued.
Many party leaders here claimed that the Sharifs had already been issued passports and that they had submitted those to the British embassy in Saudi Arabia for visas.
Meanwhile, the family of the former prime minister’s brother Mian Abbas Sharif reached here from Saudi Arabia. A daughter of Mian Abbas will get married in a few weeks and he is also expected to come to the country to attend it.
This means that now only former chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and members of Nawaz Sharif’s family will stay out of the country.
