LAHORE, Jan 22: PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif has said that exiled former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to leave Jeddah for London on Jan 29. The former prime minister, accompanied by his wife Kulsoom, son Husain Nawaz, daughter Mariam and mother Shamim Akhtar, will be arriving at Heathrow Airport.

Mian Abbas Sharif and Capt (retired) Safdar and some others will be joining the exiled family in the British capital subsequently.

The Pakistan government had announced in the first week of November that the Sharif family would be issued passports so that they could move out of the Saudi kingdom. However, procedural formalities for passports and then British visas delayed their departure for London.

Mr Nawaz Sharif and some other family members had recently gone to UAE to offer condolences over the death of the Dubai ruler.

According to Mian Shahbaz Sharif, the PML-N leaders and workers in Britain would receive their leader at the airport.

It is not clear whether the former prime minister would pay a courtesy call on King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz before leaving for London.

Mian Shahbaz Sharif said in case the former prime minister could not meet the Saudi leader before leaving for the British capital, he would call on him later on.

The PML-N leader, he said, had been issued a multiple-entry visa and would be free to visit the UK. He denied that the former prime minister would have to leave UK after six months to have his visa renewed.