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K J M Varma in Islamabad
The Lahore high court has asked Pakistan's military regime to disclose details of the 'exile package' of Nawaz Sharief and his family worked out with the Saudi government, adding a new twist to the issue of the return of the deposed premier's kin ahead of the October election.
The court directed Deputy Attorney General to seek the details of the 'exile package' of the Sharief family under which they were sent to Jeddah in 2000, allegedly on a ten-year exile.
A petition filed by an activist of Sharief's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) questioned the government's recent statements that Shahbaz Sharief, the brother of Nawaz Sharief who has been nominated to head the party, would not be permitted to return as he too was bound by the 'arrangement' under which Sharief and family was permitted to go abroad.
Ever since Sharief nominated Shahbaz to head the party early this month, a number of ministers and officials in the recent days have asserted that Shahbaz too would not be permitted to return even though no cases were registered against him.
The Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider, has said Nawaz along with his family went on an exile for 10 years under an 'arrangement' reached between Sharief's family, Pakistan and Saudi Arabian governments.
He, however, declined to divulge the details of the 'arrangements'.
The Sharief family argued that the arrangement lasted the three-year tenure fixed by the Supreme Court for Musharraf to hold election and hand over power to an elected government.
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