LONDON, Sept 29: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will make another attempt to return to Pakistan from exile around Oct 18, even if he risks expulsion again, his brother said in a television interview.

Shahbaz Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), told Al-Jazeera television’s English-language service on Friday that his brother was “going to return very soon after Ramazan”.

He said that Nawaz Sharif, who was deported to Saudi Arabia on Sept 10 hours after returning to Pakistan on a flight from London, might return on, before or after Oct 18.

He dismissed a suggestion that Mr Sharif would fly back with Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister who had announced plans to return from exile on Oct 18.

“I wish that were to be the case...,” he said.

Though they had once worked together for a return to democracy in Pakistan, he said, Ms Bhutto later “took the other route to negotiate with this dictatorial regime” which Mr Sharif opposes.

Shahbaz Sharif also expected President Pervez Musharraf to expel his brother once again if he returns.

“I cannot say how he’ll deal with that situation but left to him he will bundle him out again, most definitely,” he said, adding that Gen Musharraf was a military dictator opposed to democratic political activity.

When pressed again on the date of Oct 18, Shahbaz Sharif said: “Well, there is a possibility that he could arrive around that date, or earlier, or a little later, but he will be arriving back very soon.”—AFP