WHEN Begum Nusrat Shahbaz, wife of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and their two daughters were allowed to return to Pakistan on April 5 , people started speculating that Gen Musharraf had softened his attitude towards the man who was regarded as a good administrator and a hard task master. It had also been reported that PML(Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain had personally requested the all-powerful president to allow the ladies to stay in Pakistan till the marriage of the two daughters: Javeria and Rabia. Chaudhry Shujaat had gone out of the way to obtain permission, saying that the female members should not be treated like male members of the exiled family.
Mian Shahbaz Sharif praised the gesture, which created an impression in political circles that the Sharifs and Chaudhris would ultimately forget the bitterness of the past and start with a clean slate.
It was speculated that the arrival of the Sharif family members in relaxation of the banishment agreement, would create a new atmosphere of harmony and that rival parties would bury the hatchet.
However, everything changed on the last Friday of June. Some PML(N) leaders held a news conference at a local hotel. As it came to an end, a leader told this scribe that the police had arrested the wife and daughters of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and taken them to Islamabad, for deportation to the Kingdom. The man who had broken the news lacked credibility — he is fond of exaggerating things.
After hours of probing, it was discovered that the police had, indeed, directed the three ladies to pack up for Saudi Arabia in 24 hours. No reasons were given.
Hamza Shahbaz, the elder son of the PML(N) president, who was not allowed to accompany the rest of the family to Saudi Arabia, established contact with the relevant authorities to have the order withdrawn. The PML(N) leaders told reporters late that night that Prime Minister Jamali had personally intervened after which the matter had been resolved. Some others said that the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan had also played a vital role in persuading the authorities to allow the three women to stay.
St the time when the PML(N) leaders were telling such stories to the media, the police had surrounded all the Sharifs’ houses in the H-Block of Model Town. If the prime minister had issued a stay order, as was being claimed by the PML(N) leaders, who had ordered the police deployment?
Then came reports that the ladies could be deported any moment, while the PML(N) leaders, including some relatives of the Sharifs, continued to insist that the matter had been settled and the ladies would not have to leave the country.
Official sources in Islamabad were adamant that the ladies would have to go back and rejoin the other Sharifs in the Kingdom.
The ladies were staying at the residence of Mian Ilyas Meraj, brother of Begum Nusrat. He had reportedly assured the government that the guests would not involve themselves in any political activity during their stay in Pakistan. The following day, the ladies were to be sent back to Saudi Arabia. The police searched the house repeatedly, but to no avail. The search continued for five days. The hosts were unwilling to give away any information about the whereabouts of the guests. The police were under instructions to recover them in all circumstances. The police used its ‘conventional’ arm- twisting method, forcing Ilyas Meraj to tell them where the wanted guests were.
The ladies were recovered on Tuesday from the very house the police had abortively searched many a time. They were sent to Islamabad, from where they were flown to Saudi Arabia. The three immediately went to Britain.
The recent episode has widened he gulf between the Chaudhris and the Sharifs. The favour extended by the government in allowing the three Sharifs to come to their country for three months, has been overwhelmed by their hasty deportation. It is said that the Sharifs and the Chaudhris are political enemies — and will remain so. The deportation has also killed the speculation that Gen Musharraf had a soft corner for Mian Shahbaz Sharif. Though the Sharifs insist that they do not have an agreement with the government, it would be naive to believe that the former ruling family had left the country without an accord. Had there been no formal or informal agreement, the Sharifs would have been free to leave Saudi Arabia at will and travel to any part of the world. But this is not so. Mian Shahbaz Sharif had to seek the Pakistan government’s permission to go to the United States to get treatment for a cancerous growth in his intestines. The permission, according to an official spokesman, had been given on humanitarian grounds.
If someone can’t go even to a third country without the Pakistan government’s permission, he cannot be believed to have left the country without an agreement. This leads one to believe that there is certainly an agreement, written or unwritten, which the Sharifs are bound to adhere to. (Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed insists that he has got a copy of the agreement the Sharifs had signed).
The situation after 32 months of their banishment shows that the Pakistan government has failed to force the Sharifs into oblivion. The Sharifs are the subject of discussions in news, columns and editorials. Sympathy for the exiled family has grown. The treatment meted out to the three ladies has softened many more hearts.
Even political adversaries of the Sharifs are said to have condemned the deportation.
Interestingly, it had been claimed that the daughters of Mian Shahbaz Sharif had come to Pakistan to get married. No date had been set for the purpose and there wasn’t any other happening to hint at that. Perhaps, the whole thing was pre-planned and they had no intention of getting married.
WHEN Begum Nusrat Shahbaz, wife of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and their two daughters were allowed to return to Pakistan on April 5 , people started speculating that Gen Musharraf had softened his attitude towards the man who was regarded as a good administrator and a hard task master. It had also been reported that PML(Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain had personally requested the all-powerful president to allow the ladies to stay in Pakistan till the marriage of the two daughters: Javeria and Rabia. Chaudhry Shujaat had gone out of the way to obtain permission, saying that the female members should not be treated like male members of the exiled family.
