LAHORE, May 7: Although the ARD parties are making preparations to receive Mian Shahbaz Sharif at Lahore Airport on his return from London on May 11, president of the ruling PML Chaudhry Shujaat Husain insists that the exiled leader will not come to Pakistan.
"He will not come to Pakistan. He will not even take off from London. This is my assessment," he said while talking to Dawn on Friday. He said in case the former chief minister did dare come back, the government would take appropriate measures in the light of the agreement under which the Sharifs were banished to Saudi Arabia.
Shujaat Husain rejected assertions that there was no banishment accord. He said had there been no agreement, all Sharif family members would not have been leading quiet lives in Saudi Arabia.
"No other member of the Sharif family says that there is no agreement, and no other member has left the kingdom on any account. This means there is something which restricts their movement to the kingdom and prevents them from issuing statements", he argued.
The PML president said Mian Shahbaz had dodged the Saudi authorities by feigning illness -- to get out of the kingdom for treatment. Mian Shahbaz, he said, was supposed to return to Saudi Arabia after the treatment and his stay in London even after treatment was violative of the agreement.
He said the Saudi authorities would make him adhere to the agreement when he returned to the kingdom. In response to a question, he said reports that Mian Shahbaz could strike some deal with the PML government were "absurd". Such rumours were spread to keep the PML-N united, he alleged.
MEETING: Chaudhry Shujaat Husain met Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in Islamabad on Friday night, informed sources said. The two leaders exchanged views on a number of issues, including the unification of various factions of the PML.
A meeting of the PML Senators and MNAs is due to be held here on Sunday mainly to discuss the unification of various factions of the Pakistan Muslim League. Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, who will preside over the meeting, will take the participants into confidence.