LAHORE: Suspicions harboured by opposition parties about the Sharifs’ visit to Saudi Arabia are not dying down despite a clarification about the purpose of the tour by a spokesperson for the ousted prime minister and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Zardari said here on Monday that a number of rumours about the purpose of the Sharifs’ visit to Saudi Arabia were circulating and he was not sure what’s happening there.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been in the kingdom on an unscheduled visit since Dec 27, while former prime minister Nawaz Sharif reached there on Saturday (Dec 30).

“Nothing can be said for sure about disqualified premier Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia,” Mr Zardari said while talking to the media.

Zardari says not sure what’s happening in the kingdom

“There are news reports about attempts to protect a kafeel (sponsor) in Saudi Arabia and also to strike an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) deal,” he said, while defending such a deal signed by the PPP during the Musharraf regime.

“It was a dictatorial rule; I was incarcerated and attempts were being made to send me in exile when the NRO [deal] was struck.”

Mr Zardari said that he too respected the Saudi government, but recalled that the royal family did not enjoy any influence over the PPP government.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) spokesman Fawad Chaudhry claimed here that the purpose of the two brothers’ visit revolved around the family’s shell company Hill Metals which, he alleged, was used by the Sharifs to launder money and stash it abroad.

He said all incarcerated criminals should be set free if the disqualified prime minister was offered relief through NRO and vowed that the PTI would resist any such move.

Awami Muslim League president Sheikh Rashid claimed in Rawalpindi that the Sharifs would be offered no NRO “even though it was jointly requested by the whole Middle East”.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan, while talking to journalists here, went a step further by claiming that the two brothers had developed differences over who should be the PML-N nominee for the prime minister’s post in the next term as the younger Sharif was desirous of laying claim to the office.

On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif’s spokesman Senator Asif Kirmani denied that the former prime minister and the Punjab chief minister were in Saudi Arabia to discuss any local political matters.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the ousted prime minister was in the kingdom to give his input on some issues being faced by the ummah.

Meanwhile, Mr Zardari dared the former army ruler Pervez Musharraf to return home and face various court cases filed against him.

He was responding to a question about the retired army general’s call for a third political force to beat the “corrupt” PML-N and PPP.

Talking about an anti-corruption narrative in the country, Mr Zardari alleged that the National Accountability Bureau was victimising Sindh province.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018