LAHORE, July 10: The Sharif family will neither return nor contest elections as long as the incumbent government or its stooges remain in power in the country, says Prof Sajid Mir, chief of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith, who had visited the Sharifs several times in Saudi Arabia.

The Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith (MJAH) is a long time ally of the PML.

According to him the PML and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would soon agree on striking an alliance or making electoral adjustments for October polls.

The former Senator also believed that the ouster of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto from politics would be detrimental to the future of the country.

Talking to Dawn here on Wednesday, he denied that the Sharifs were not returning because of any “deal” signed by the family and the army as was being claimed by a government spokesman.

“To the best of my knowledge, Nawaz Sharif had only written in the ‘deal’ that he wanted to go abroad for his and father’s medical treatment,” the former Senator said.

Had the government any proof that the family had agreed to go in exile for 10 years it would have presented it to the people and the press though a demand for it had been made at various occasions, he said.

Answering a question about the PML alliance with the MMA, he said a desire in this regard existed on both sides and its results would become public within a week.

He claimed that the PML(N)-MMA alliance could win at least 40 per cent National Assembly seats provided the polls were held in a free, fair and transparent manner. However, he feared that the government would rig the polls to get its desired results.

About his differences with the other MMA constituents over alliance issue, Prof Mir said the MMA would go with the party that was ideologically more closer to it.

The PML shared, though under constraints of time, the views of the MMA on religio-political issues, including constitutional package and US interference, so it would be appropriate that both of them joined hands in the political field, he argued.

Asked if he would break away with the Majlis if it did not agree to his argument, he said he would go by the decision of his party (MJAH).

However, he said refusing to cooperate with the MMA in the elections did not mean breaking away from it for, he said, the alliance had been formed to safeguard religious values and institutions and contesting polls was one of the many tools to achieve the objective.

Asked how the parties, especially the Jamaat-i-Islami which had played a major role in ousting the last PML government, and the MJAH decided to sit together, Prof Mir said the incumbent government gave so many psychological shocks to these anti-Nawaz parties that they were forced to change their stance.

He said he had asked Qazi Husain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rahman when they were in custody that where the people had gone who were ready to fight against the government during Nawaz era.