LAHORE, Sept 10: The excellent relations between Mian Nawaz Sharif and the Saudi rulers remain unaffected despite the Pakistan government’s efforts to drive a wedge between the two using the issue of the former prime minister’s return to Pakistan in violation of the so-called agreement to stay out of the country for 10 years, PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq claims.

Raja said while talking to Dawn on Monday that Saudi princes had received Mr Sharif when he landed in Jeddah after being deported by the Pakistan government. The princes, he said, also offered the PML-N leader to stay at the royal palace. However, he said, Mr Sharif decided to stay at his private residence, which he had bought for the family after leaving the Saroor Palace a couple of years ago.

The PML-N chairman said ‘important Saudi dignitaries’ would be calling on Mr Sharif during the next few days.

Answering a question, he said the deportation of Mr Sharif to Saudi Arabia was not entirely unexpected for the PML-N. But, he said, this was the last option the party expected the government would resort to on Mr Sharif’s return to Islamabad.

The party, he said, thought that the government would arrest the former prime minister on the basis of various cases.

Asked why the Saudi authorities could not prevent Mr Sharif’s deportation despite claims by the latter that he was in contact with King Abdullah, Raja said: “I think there is also a third party to the issue which is stronger than the remaining two and is trying to protect Gen Pervez Musharraf”.

This was an obvious reference to the United States, although the PML-N chairman did not name it.

About Mr Sharif’s admission regarding the existence of an understanding about his banishment after denying the same for several years, the PML-N leader said: “Maybe it needed a little more accuracy in expression”.

He said a copy of the so-called undertaking had also been produced before the Supreme Court but it had not given it any importance.

Raja Zafarul Haq argued that since the Saudi system did not allow anyone to involve in politics, Mr Sharif did not take part in any political activity for the five years he spent in the kingdom. But, he said, the former prime minister started taking an active part in politics after he moved to London.

The PML-N leader claimed public support to the PML-N had gone up after Mr Sharif’s initiative to return to Pakistan in the light of the Supreme Court’s verdict. The surge in the support would be reflected when free and fair elections were held.

He said the PML-N would decide its future course of action in consultation with the All parties Democratic Movement during the next few days.