LAHORE, May 1: As all top government functionaries are insisting that Mian Shahbaz Sharif will not return to Pakistan before the expiry of the banishment accord, the PML-N has approached the Commonwealth with the request that it adopt a "robust approach" to facilitate the exiled leader to go back home.

Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the president of the party's International Affairs Office, has written a letter (a copy of which was made available to Dawn from London) to Commonwealth Secretary-General Donald McKinnon explaining the dangers the former chief minister faces on his return home, and asking him to send an observer of the organization with the exiled leader on the flight that will take him to Pakistan.

The letter gives no date on which the former chief minister plans to land at the Lahore Airport.

The letter says: "I am writing to bring to your kind attention the events surrounding the forthcoming return to Pakistan by the 10th May 2004 of our party President Mr Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif after forty months of forced exile by the military government.

"It was on 10th December 2000 that Mr Sharif was forcibly exiled against his wishes along with his family in total disregard to the law of Pakistan that does not provide for such action against a citizen on the part of the State. In his absence the government in Pakistan brought fabricated charges against Mr Sharif that he now wishes to face in a Pakistani court of law so as to clear his name.

"To facilitate his return to Pakistan Mr Sharif recently approached the Supreme Court in Islamabad and received the favourable observation of the court on 7th April 2004 allowing his return. However the Pakistan government through the Interior Minister Mr Faisal Hayat and other high officials has declared that Mr Sharif would be deported on arrival at a Pakistani port to another country. This would constitute an unlawful act of the Pakistan government that would be against the norms of democracy and the Constitution as it would be tantamount to denying a Pakistani citizen his guaranteed basic right of abode in the country.

"Through this letter we wish to bring this unconstitutional and anti-democratic stance of the Pakistan government towards Mr Sharif's return in the notice of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) that is to consider Pakistan's reinstatement as a member of the Commonwealth in its meeting scheduled to be held in Marlborough House on the 21st and 22nd of May 2004.

"As you may be aware the present government in Pakistan arrested the Acting President of the party Mr Javed Hashmi on trumped up charges of sedition in October 2003. He has been sentenced on 13th April 2004 to twenty-three years rigorous imprisonment by a Sessions court through a highly dubious in camera trial within the precincts of the jail where Mr Hashmi is being held. This is only the latest incident of persecution of our party leadership unleashed by the military government after the unconstitutional and illegal coup de'tat of 12th October 1999.

"As your esteemed organisation has been in the forefront for ensuring a return to genuine democracy in Pakistan since 12th October 1999 we have felt it important to inform you of the expected anti-democratic acts of the Pakistani government facing the PML-N President on his return. Therefore a robust approach on the part of your organisation to facilitate Mr Sharif's return to Pakistan would be a welcome boost to efforts of restoring democracy in Pakistan.

"I would request that the issues raised in this letter are considered by your organisation in order to play a positive role in ensuring that Mr Sharif's democratic and constitutional rights are respected by the Pakistan government as also the possibility of an observer from your organisation accompanying him on his return".