ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has appealed to the country's highest court to be allowed to return home and contest parliamentary elections due later this year, his party said yesterday.
Sharif's Muslim League, one of the country's main opposition parties, filed a petition with the Supreme Court yesterday, requesting it to ask the government to allow Sharif to return home, one of the party's leaders said.
The Muslim League said Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who was also exiled to Saudi Arabia, want to contest the elections.
Sharif and his family were banished to Saudi Arabia by President General Pervez Musharraf in December 2000, the year after Musharraf staged a bloodless coup ousting him.
Musharraf has repeatedly said that he had allowed Sharif to leave Pakistan under an agreement whereby Sharif would not return home for at least 10 years. Sharif has denied signing any such deal.
Musharraf has said he would block attempts by Sharif to return. But Sharif's court petition comes days after Musharraf initiated talks with another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to try to muster her support ahead of this year's elections.
Source: China Daily/agencies
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article