ISLAMABAD May 9: The jailed president of ARD and acting president of PML-N, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, has termed the decision of party president Shahbaz Sharif to return home a courageous one.

Talking to his family members who met him at Adiala Jail here on Sunday, Mr Hashmi said the return of Shahbaz Sharif would pave the way for the homecoming of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto as well.

He said the Supreme Court's detailed verdict had vindicated "our stand that the Sharif family's exile to Saudi Arabia had not been contemplated under any written agreement or a deal as the rulers were propagating, since they failed to produce any such agreement in the apex court". This, he said, also proved that the Sharif family was coerced into exile.

Mr Hashmi said the government, despite using all its coercive methods, including a 23-year jail term under the charges of treachery and treason, had failed to cow him down.

Now, he claimed, efforts were being made to detain his daughter, MNA Maimoona Hashmi, as police and intelligence agencies' personnel intruded his Multan residence, making the inmates hostage at gunpoint to conduct house search.