September 11, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 28, 1428

LONDON, Sept 10: PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif has described the deportation of Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia a slap in the face of superior judiciary.Talking to the media here on Monday, the former chief minister of Punjab said that he was in contact with APDM leaders and a new strategy would be worked out in consultation with all the member parties to meet the new situation.

He said the struggle that

was launched by his brother would be continued with renewed vigour.He said every effort would be made to get Nawaz Sharif released from the Saudi custody.

Answering a question, he said the decision to return home was taken in the light of the Supreme Court judgment. He said: “The superior courts had given us permission to return and had also instructed the government not to block our re-entry in our own country.”

But, he said, by not respecting the court’s ruling the government has demonstrated its dictatorial attitude towards rule of law, the Constitution and judiciary.

He said Nawaz Sharif’s decision to go back home was based on the law of the land but if the government wanted to use the moral scale to judge his action then he (Shahbaz) would like to recall that not only Musharraf violated the Constitution when he toppled an elected government on Oct 12, 1999, but he also went back on the word of honour he had given to the entire nation on TV by not taking off his uniform on December 31, 2004.

The PML-N sources avoided answering questions if the decision by Nawaz not to take Shahbaz along was based on some prior information about the final destination of the

journey he was undertaking aboard the PIA on Sunday night.

They were also not forthcoming when asked if the major components of the APDM, the Jamat-i-Islami and JUI, had betrayed Nawaz by not coming out in their thousands to overwhelm government’s arrangements to deport the former prime minister.