ISLAMABAD, DEC 15: Deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif were on Wednesday allowed by the Anti-Terrorism Court to fly to their hometown Lahore because of the death of Sharif's mother-in-law.The administrative judge of Anti-Terrorism Court at Karachi, Shabbir Ahmed, granted the permission to Sharif and his brother on an application moved on their behalf by their counsel Gulbahar Korai on Wednesday morning.The prosecution side did not oppose the application and told the court that necessary arrangements were being made to fly the Sharif brothers to Lahore and back. The Advocate General of Sindh, Raja Qureshi, told the court that necessary arrangements have been made to fly Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday to attend religious rituals at Lahore and they would be flown back after that. The deposed premier, under detention since October 12, however, could not attend the funeral of his mother-in-law in Lahore on Wednesday morning.This would be Sharif's first visit tohis hometown since his Government was dismissed by Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf, who later assumed power as the Chief Executive of Pakistan.Sharif and his brother, who is the former chief minister of Punjab, along with five others have been accused of criminal conspiracy of waging war against Pakistan, attempted murder and hijacking and face death penalty if convicted.Meanwhile, at least seven people, including four policemen, were gunned down and three others wounded in two separate attacks in southern and central Pakistan, police and news reports said today.In Larkana town, four members of a police squad were killed and two wounded when they were attacked by unidentified assailants, police officials said.Army takes two former ministers into custodyISLAMABAD, DEC 15 :After being under house arrest for more than two months, former ministers in the ousted Nawaz Sharif Government, Mushahid Hussain and Choudhury Nisar Ali Khan have been taken into Army custody, family memberssaid. Information Minister Hussain and Petroleum Minister Khan, were picked up from their residences by the Army on Tuesday evening and taken to an unknown destination.``This is very unfortunate and completely against human rights. We will be consulting our lawyers as Mushahid was kept for two months without any charge. There is no law which says you can keep a person for several days without charging him,'' Hussain's wife Dushka Syed told a hurriedly called press conference on Tuesday. Denying that Hussain had any role in the sacking of Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, Dushka Syed said, Army personnel who took him away refused to give the charges against him and did not disclose where he was being taken. During the last two months Hussain had not been questioned even once. ``They (Army) failed to find anything against him,'' his wife claimed.Meanwhile, Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt quoting family sources said Nisar Ali Khan was also taken away from his Faizabad residence. The authorities are yet toconfirm or deny the detention of the former ministers, considered ``very close'' to the deposed premier in taking crucial decisions.Hussain and Khan were among the very few of the 40 odd ministers in the Sharif Cabinet who were kept in ``protective custody'' for the last two months by the Army.Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is also believed to be under house arrest, but there is no information about him.Dushka Syed said the former Information minister was in China from September 26 to October 4 and after returning did not have any one-to-one interaction with Sharif. He only attended a Cabinet meeting and a brief meeting at the airport.After Hussain's return, she said, he was mainly confined to the house as the ISI had advised him that his life was in danger due to the sectarian killings. Narrating the events of October 12, she said Army personnel stormed into their house breaking glass windows and held the entire family at gun-point. Afterwards the soldiers would sit in the house with ``theirguns pointed at us.''She said, though she was allowed to teach at a local university, a policewoman accompanied her and even the school bag of her 11-year-old son was searched by security personnel.
