LAHORE, July 10: Mian Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Capt Safdar returned empty-handed to the Saroor Palace on Sunday after Pakistan’s consulate in Jeddah told him that it had still not received instructions from Islamabad about issuing passports to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz. He was asked to contact the consulate two days later.

“We had submitted the application on July 2. It’s humiliating that we are asked again and again to come to the consulate. Representatives of intelligence agencies watch us when we come to the consulate. Give us a firm date when the passport will be issued,” Capt Safdar was quoted by PML-N sources as saying after his inconclusive meeting with the consul-general.

He said now he planned to send applications, one by one, for passports and ID cards of all members of the family and the process would continue till the Sharifs were given what was their fundamental right.

He said that the former prime minister was not insisting on getting a diplomatic passport. “We want Pakistan’s passport, even ordinary one, which gives us our identity”, said Mr Sharif’s son-in-law.

According to official sources, a diplomatic passport can be issued only from Islamabad while an ordinary passport can be had from the consulate in Jeddah.

Initially, Capt Safdar said, the signals from the government were quite positive. But, he said, the situation changed after some ruling party leaders sought Presidency’s intervention. The PML leaders, he said, apprehended that the party would receive a serious setback in the local elections if Gen Pervez Musharraf showed a positive attitude towards the Sharifs.

He said Mr Sharif would certainly go to Pakistan if he got his passport.