Nawaz won’t return, saudis tell Musharraf

PAKISTAN: President General Pervez Musharraf has been assured by Saudi King Abdullah and Saad Hariri, the son of late Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafiq Hariri, that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will not return to the country in the near future, highly placed official sources said.

“They (the Saudi King and Mr Hariri) have assured the President that they will use their influence to stop his (Mr Sharif’s) comeback,” said a source. “At least Nawaz Sharif will not be coming back before the upcoming elections (due by early next year),” the official source told this newspaper.

The source said the son of former Prime Minister Lebanon Saad Hariri has met Nawaz Sharif in London and demanded him of the implementation on agreement.

“He clearly said that if he (Nawaz Sharif) wants to change the agreement, he will have to first finalise the modalities with the government. He also conveyed to him the message of (Saudi) King Abdullah,” the source said.

Mr Sharif was on Thursday allowed by the Supreme Court to cut short his so-called deal with the government and return home from exile three years before the agreed 10 years.

Meanwhile, federal minister for parliamentary affairs Sher Afgan has said the Cabinet has sent an advice to President Musharraf for restoring sentences of Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif after they backed out of an exile agreement with the government.

The minister said that if the Sharifs violated the exile deal the government could restore their remitted sentences. The federal minister said that if the Cabinet sent an advice under Article 48 (1) of the Constitution, the President was bound to act on it.

Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League(N) on the other hand says that the former Premier will return home before September 10. PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq told reporters in Makhdoom Rashid that “We express our gratitude to Saudi government for their help to Nawaz Sharif in difficult time.

Islamabad, Tuesday, Asian Age