LAHORE, June 29: Leaders of the PML-N, the PPP and the MMA are scheduled to meet here on Monday to examine the possibility of requisitioning a session of the Punjab Assembly to take up the issue of the three Sharif family women the government wants to deport to Saudi Arabia, a PML-N leader said here on Sunday.

Rana Sanaullah Khan, who is also deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, said at a news conference that other possible options targeted at thwarting the government’s plan would also come under discussion.

The news conference was held at the road in front of the Sharif family residences in H-Block, Model Town. Punjab PML-N President Zulfikar Khosa, Secretary-General Khwaja Saad Rafiq and others assailed the government for hunting the apolitical women of the Sharif family which they said had the right to stay in their country.

They said it was strange that before becoming prime minister, Mir Zafarullah had been meeting the Sharifs in Saudi Arabia on the ground that he had personal relations with them. But now that he had become the chief executive of the country the women of the same family were being forced to leave their country.

The PML-N leaders said this depicted that either Mr Jamali was a powerless prime minister or he had little regard for human values.

Khwaja Saad said the PML-N had struck no deal with the government and would not hand over the three women for deportation.

He said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat was wrong in his assertion that the three ladies were overstaying in Pakistan. A minister who could not have his own name deleted from the ECL could not be expected to be powerful enough to take decisions about others, he said.

Mr Khosa said that the Musharraf government’s maltreatment of the Sharif family women, specially when they had nothing to do with politics, was condemnable. He said if the government wanted to settle scores, it should choose the male members of the Sharif family, not the women. A protest programme was announced at the news conference. According to Khwaja Saad, Tuesday would be observed as day of condemnation across the province. Protest camps would be set up at various places for the purpose.

A public meeting would be held near the Muslim Masjid, Lohari Gate. MNAs Ayaz Sadiq and Pervaiz Malik, Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s spokesman Farrukh Shah, Mian Asad Muhammad, Naseer Bhutta, Mian Rashid, Nasir Iqbal Khan, Saba Sadiq, Syed Zaeem Qadri and Majida Zaidi were also present at the news conference.

In a related development, some supporters of PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday staged a sit-in in front of the Punjab Assembly secretariat as a protest against the government’s plan to deport the family of the former Punjab chief minister.

There are also reports that some hunger strike camps were set up at various places.