ISLAMABAD, 3 November 2005 — Pakistan is to issue a passport to Nawaz Sharif so he can travel to London with his second son who is suffering from an as yet undiagnosed illness.
The move comes just over six years after Pakistan’s current military ruler President Pervez Musharraf ousted Sharif, who now lives in Jeddah.
“This decision has been taken by President Musharraf purely on humanitarian grounds. It is nothing to do with politics,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told journalists.
Islamabad has asked Riyadh to allow Sharif to go to Britain with his son Hasan Nawaz.
He will be issued the passport whenever he visits the Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh, the minister added. Sharif’s old passport had expired and the Pakistani government had previously refused to issue a replacement.
Rashid said that Sharif would be free to go anywhere, but that “he cannot come to Pakistan”.
The former premier was unable to attend the funeral of his father Mian Muhammad Sharif, 85, in Pakistan last year because of his exile.
Sharif’s brother Shahbaz, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League (N) from exile, was deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia in May 2004 after he flew in to Lahore airport in defiance of a ban.
A senior party official, Raja Zafarul Haq, told AFP that the son’s illness had not yet been diagnosed.
“Hussain started losing weight very fast. He suddenly felt very weak on his left side. Sharif told me by telephone last week that he took his son to hospital for tests but so far he had no idea about his disease,” he said.
“Sharif asked me to pray for his son’s early recovery and said he wants to take Hasan to London for treatment,” the official said.
