LAHORE, Jan 14: Four of the 18 members of the Sharif family, banished to Saudi Arabia about two years back, flew into the city on Tuesday morning, triggering speculations about the status of the agreement under which they were asked to leave the country.

Wife, two daughters and a son of reclusive Mian Abbas Sharif came by PK-760, with no inkling to the fellow travellers that they belonged to the family which first ruled the Punjab and then the entire country for many years.

Hamza Shahbaz, the only member of the Sharif family staying back in Pakistan as a guarantor for the huge loans the state has to recover, received the guests from the royal kingdom. Neither Hamza nor the guests talked to reporters.

Highly placed official sources told Dawn that the family had come with government permission to participate in some family marriages. They would stay here for about a week and then go back to Saudi Arabia.

The sources said no other members of the Sharifs would come to Pakistan.

Hamza drove Sahiba Abbas, Saira, Salma (all in ‘hejab’) and Aziz Abbas to his residence in S-Block of the Defence Housing Society. From there, they went to a Model Town residence of their relatives.

This is third time since the banishment of the Sharifs that some members returned to Pakistan, despite the government rhetoric that no exiled members was allowed to come to their country before the expiry of the mandatory period of 10 years.

Yousaf Abbas, a student, was the first to come back to Pakistan only months after being exiled. He was immediately arrested and then sent back.

Then it was in November 2001 that Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s wife Nusrat landed in Lahore along with her two daughters. Official sources insist the agreement brokered by Saudi Arabia is valid for 10 years and during this period the Sharifs cannot go to a third country.