ISLAMABAD, April 28: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif is likely to return to Pakistan on May 3, a source in the interior ministry said.

The source told Dawn that Mr Shahbaz Sharif had written to some senior journalists in Pakistan inviting them to London so that he could return to the country on May 3 along with a team of journalists.

The source said that some of the invited journalists could not apply for visa at the British high commission as they did not have valid passports and computerized national identity card.

"They (journalists) requested the interior ministry to issue them fresh passports and ID cards on an urgent basis so that they could apply for visas and travel to London," the source added.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat insists that Mr Shahbaz Sharif will not return in a hurry. He told journalists on Wednesday that the PML-N leader would not return. "If he returns, he would be treated according to the law," he said.

The interior minister said there were many questions about the return of the former chief minister of Punjab. He asked why Mian Nawaz Sharif was keeping silence and not giving any statement about his brother's planned return.

"Nawaz Sharif knows that if Shahbaz Sharif returned, it would be a violation of the agreement made between the government and the Sharif family in 1999," the minister said. The information minister has already said that under the agreement, the Sharifs could neither return to Pakistan nor take part in politics for 10 years.

AIRPORT ALERT

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday night placed security agencies on high alert at the Islamabad airport in the wake of intelligence reports that PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif may land at the airport within 12 hours, official sources told Dawn.