By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : News reports about Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with Saudi King Abdullah have infused new life into his party leaders and workers here who were demoralised after the former Pakistani prime minister was sent into forced exile when he landed in Islamabad from London last week.
A brief statement by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that King Abdullah met Sharif in Jeddah. No more details were given except that both exchanged “cordial talks”.
“The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz received at his palace here today (Saturday) Pakistan’s former Premier Nawaz Sharif. During the audience, they exchanged cordial talks,” the news report by SPA reads on its website. The report did not mention the duration of the meeting.
However, this brief report has given new life to Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Nawaz).
The PML-N leaders and workers were demoralised after Sharif was sent into forced exile Sep 10 as well as the announcement by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that their leader Benazir Bhutto was coming back to the country on Oct 18.
“This (meeting) shows Mian Nawaz Sharif has cordial relations with the Saudi leaders and we are confident that he would be again among his people very soon,” the party’s secretary-general Zafar Iqbal Jhagra told IANS. He said the party has started preparations for the coming elections.
“We would also make every effort to block a dictator to get another term,” he said referring to President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts for re-election as president for another five-year term.
He said that PML-N and other members of All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) were meeting in Islamabad Sunday to discuss their strategy to block Musharraf’s way for another term in presidency. He said that Sharif’s wife Begum Kulsoom Nawaz would soon be coming to Pakistan to lead the anti-Musharraf campaign.
Kulsoom has announced that she will come to lead the party, as according to reports her husband would not be taking part in politics for three more years to complete the 10 years agreement he had signed with the Musharraf regime while leaving the country in December 2000.
“Now we are sure that Mian sahib can come to Pakistan soon and would again be our prime minister,” says Ahmed Chaudhry, who was arrested when he tried to reach Islamabad airport to receive Sharif.
He said he had distributed sweets after knowing that his leader had met the Saudi King.
On Sep 10, Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia hours after he landed in Pakistan following seven years in exile. About four hours after his arrival in Islamabad on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from London, Sharif was taken into custody, charged with corruption and then quickly taken to another plane and flown to Jeddah.
At King Abdul Aziz International Airport’s Royal Terminal in Jeddah, Sharif was accorded treatment normally reserved for former prime ministers. He was received at the airport by Prince Muqrin, chief of intelligence, and a number of other officials.
The European Union has criticised the deportation. “If there is any legal case against Mr. Sharif, he should have a chance to defend himself in a Pakistani court,” said EU spokesperson Christiane Hohmann.
The US also rebuked Islamabad. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the decision to deport Sharif went against the Pakistan Supreme Court’s view that the former premier had the right to return and the government should not try to stop him.