ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: The Supreme Court is likely to take up on Thursday a request of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif seeking favourable directions for their return to Pakistan in order to participate in the general election.

The petitions of the Sharif brothers were fixed before a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Justice M. Javed Buttar for Aug 9 on an application by their legal counsel Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim for early hearing. The application was filed through Advocate-on-Record M. S. Khattak.

Nawaz Sharif in his petition prayed the court to declare that the Sharif brothers and their family members enjoyed the fundamental right to remain in Pakistan and participate in the general election. He also sought a direction against the government that it should not force them to live in exile.

The coming general election is expected by November this year as the present National Assembly and provincial assemblies complete their term on Nov 15.

Nawaz Sharif was arrested soon after he was ousted from the government in a bloodless military coup on Oct 12, 1999, by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He was tried for “hijacking the plane of Gen Musharraf” and remained in detention till Dec 10, 2000, after which he, his brother and family members, except nephew Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, were deported to Saudi Arabia.