PESHAWAR, April 12: The Pakistan Muslim League (N) has announced that party president Mian Shahbaz Sharif will be returning to Pakistan in a couple of months.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, PML-N information secretary Siddique-ul-Farooq said the party's consultative committee had signalled Mr Shahbaz Sharif to return.

He said the Supreme Court's verdict had belied the government's propaganda that the Sharif family had gone abroad under a deal with the military regime. Had there been any a deal the government should have furnished the record in the court, he maintained.

He said the PML-N chief was ready to face all odds on his return to the country. He said the time-servers, who had stabbed the PML-N in the back, would not be taken back in the party. But those who were intimidated or forced to join the King's party would be given amnesty, he added.

Mr Farooq said the PML-N would not rely on the military-cum-civilian establishment any longer as it had destroyed the country and implemented the US agenda in Pakistan. The PML-N had a bitter experience of siding with the establishment, he pointed out.

He alleged that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was also carrying out the US agenda in the name of fight against terrorism and had harmed the solidarity and independence of the country to the US.

The PML-N leader also criticized the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leadership, calling them as 'B team' of the military rulers. He said the MMA at an all-party conference in Mansoora on July 6, 2003, had demanded the release of Asif Ali Zardari and the return Benazir Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan. But he added, now the MMA leaders were making reverse statements.

He said the PML-N would hold a trial of all those who had been involved in the abrogation of the Constitution. The violators would be given exemplary punishment so that no one could dare to abrogate the constitution again, he added.