Saudi chides Sharif for planning Pak return

Saudi Arabia, once the home in exile of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, chided him for planning to return to his country and challenge President Pervez Musharraf.

Saudi Arabia, once the home in exile of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, chided him for planning to return to his country and challenge President Pervez Musharraf.

“Wisdom dictates that Nawaz Sharif abide by his promises not to return to Pakistan and to political activity,” said an unnamed spokesman quoted by the state SPA news agency on Tuesday.

The spokesman denied what he said were claims in some Pakistani newspapers that Riyadh “supports” the return of Sharif and his family to Pakistan.

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He said the kingdom had offered Sharif asylum for humanitarian considerations, which the Pakistani government and Musharraf had responded to positively.

Sharif lived in exile in oil-rich Saudi Arabia after Musharraf toppled him in a 1999 bloodless coup.

He was sentenced to life in prison on tax evasion and treason charges, but under a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family, President Musharraf released him in December 2000 on condition that he and his family live in exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years.

Sharif, who went to London from Saudi Arabia last year, has vowed to go back to Pakistan on September 10 and stop Musharraf’s re-election for another term.

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Saudi Arabia has close ties with Musharraf, whose police on Tuesday rounded up around 50 Sharif supporters ahead of his planned return to Pakistan.

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