LAHORE, March 31: An official spokesman said on Sunday that there was no possibility of former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif returning to Pakistan or taking part in the elections.

“None of those who had gone to Saudi Arabia under an agreement with the Sharifs is coming back,” President Musharraf’s press secretary Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi told Dawn.

He was asked to comment on press reports suggesting that the former Punjab chief minister was in contact with the government and planned to return home to take part in the October elections.

Some people say it’s significant that while President Musharraf categorically rules out the possibility of former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif returning to power, he does not say anything about Shahbaz Sharif. Some papers took this to mean that the government had a different policy towards the younger Sharif.

“None of them is coming back,” said Gen Qureshi in a categorical tone.