LAHORE, Nov 2: All members of the exiled Sharif family will go to London in a couple of weeks once the procedural formalities are completed, a spokesman for Mian Nawaz Sharif, Farrukh Shah, said on Wednesday.
However, diplomatic sources told Dawn that by Wednesday evening, the Pakistan embassy in Riyadh had not received any instructions with regard to issuance of passports to the exiled former prime minister or any other member of his family.
On the other hand, highly-placed ruling PML sources said that the Saudi government had confirmed that Mr Hasan Nawaz needed treatment abroad and that it was in the light of the Saudi request that President Musharraf accorded permission on humanitarian grounds.
PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq said in a separate statement after contacting the exiled former prime minister in Madina that so far Mr Sharif had not been given any official information about the issuance of passport. He said the party was waiting for the government to implement what Information Minister Sheikh Rashid had announced at a news conference.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Dawn that while Mr Sharif would be issued a passport by Pakistan’s consul-general in Jeddah, he did not know whether the passports of the rest of the family members had also expired.
He said in case the other family members also applied for passports, “We’ll see their applications”.
Farrukh Shah said once the passport was issued, Mr Sharif would take about another week to get British visa.
“Hopefully, the entire Sharif family would reach London by mid of November”.
According to Mr Shah, the family members who would go to London include, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, Begum Shamim Sharif, Mian Abbas Sharif, wife Sabiha, sons Yousaf Abbas and Aziz Abbas, Hasan Nawaz, Husain Nawaz, Capt Safdar, Mariam Safdar and their children.
He said that Eid holidays had started in Saudi Arabia because of which the issuance of passports would not be possible soon. And once the offices resumed work, the Pakistan embassy would take some more days to complete formalities.
There are conflicting reports about the future plans of the Sharifs.
Some party sources, who did not wish to be identified, “claimed” that once the Sharif family reached London, they would not like to go back to Saudi Arabia.
“In Saudi Arabia, they are guests of the royal family, but in London the Sharifs have their own residences. And since in Britain they will have unlimited freedom of speech, the Sharifs will prefer to stay there rather than go back to Saudi Arabia till their return to Pakistan.”
However, other sources close to Mr Sharif deny this impression.
They say that the ex-premier may make trips abroad, but he will retain Jeddah as the centre of his activities. “He is not going to shift his base from Jeddah,” they said.
They added that the situation would get clear in the days and weeks to come.
It is said that many Pakistanis congratulated Mr Sharif while personally meeting him in Madina or through phone calls from various cities. In response, Mr Sharif told them that he had left all matters to Allah.
Ahmed Hassan adds from Islamabad: “The decision by President Pervez Musharraf to allow Nawaz Sharif to visit London was purely on humanitarian grounds,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told newsmen.
He described the decision as an ample proof of the fact that President Musharraf and the government of Pakistan had no personal enmity with anybody, adding that the decision had been conveyed to the Saudi government to grant Mr Sharif permission to visit London.
The Pakistani high commission in London would accordingly be directed to issue a new passport to the ex-premier.
He cited the government’s past decisions of allowing Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari to visit Britain and the United States on humanitarian grounds for medical treatment.
“England is a free country and Mr Sharif would be able to issue political statements from there,” the information minister said when asked if any restrictions had been imposed on the PML-N leader before he left the country of his exile.
Hassan Nawaz is suffering from severe abdominal pain and currently under treatment at the King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah.