LAHORE, Nov 10: The Sharif family will apply for UK visas on Saturday. They could not do it on Thursday, nor would they be able to do so on Friday, as the British mission closes on these days for the weekend.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Capt Safdar told Dawn by phone from Jeddah that the visa process would hopefully be completed in three or four days once the applications were submitted.

Answering a question, he said the government’s decision to issue passports had not come as a surprise to them.

“We wrote to authorities in Islamabad in August and reminded them that withholding passport of a citizen is violation of the constitution and warned them that the family may move a court of law against it,” Capt Safdar said, adding that a copy of the letter had also been sent to the chief justice.

He insisted that it was because of their threat to move the court that the authorities had issued passports as in case of litigation the government would certainly have to swallow humiliation.

Meanwhile, the former prime minister has started asking the Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders to reach London to discuss their future course of action.

Those who have received the invitation include PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, general secretary Iqbal Zafar Jaghra and deputy information secretary Mohammad Mahdi.