The brother of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz, ended his two-year exile in Saudi Arabia yesterday, by flying to New York from Saudi Arabia, his party and family sources said yesterday.
A senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Syed Zafar Ali Shah, told Gulf News that Shahbaz "had an operation for appendicitis a few day ago in Saudi Arabia and was advised by the doctors to undergo a thorough medical check-up in the U.S."
Others said that Shahbaz had contracted a fatal illness, and that he had been given special confirmation to travel abroad.
Family sources in Jeddah told Gulf News insisted that "there was nothing at all wrong with Shahbaz's health, "and that he would be in Washington on Friday and was expected to meet with members of the Bush administration".
Family sources also said that it was unlikely Shahbaz would return to Saudi in the near future and that there was every likelihood that he would travel from the U.S. to the UK where the PML(N) has a major party office and the Sharifs own apartments where his son Hassan lives.
Officials here said, however, that Shahbaz leaving Saudi was not a result of any "understanding with the government", and would not confirm reports of a fatal illness.
Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif's 18 family members have been in exile since December 2000 after striking a deal with President General Pervez Musharraf's military government.
Party leaders said that Shahbaz's departure from Saudi Arabia was a "morale booster for the party workers and supporters".
Earlier this month, Nawaz's brother, Abbas Sharif, who was not active in politics, along with family members came for a visit to Pakistan to attend a wedding, sending signals that Musharraf government may have become more flexible towards the Sharifs.
Farhan Bokhari adds: "Shahbaz Sharif's departure from Saudi Arabia could be the first step towards intensifying the opposition's campaign against General Musharraf," said one former minister who had served in Nawaz's cabinet.
There was also speculation that Shahbaz would move quickly to open new channels of communication with important players in the Pakistani establishment as well as key opposition leaders.
A leader from the opposition Pakistan People's Party said: "A new phase could open in our relations with the opposition. Don't be surprised if Benazir Bhutto and Shahbaz Sharif appear together somewhere at a public forum outside Pakistan to plead the case for Pakistani democracy."
Though senior officials in Islamabad were treating Sharif's travel to the U.S. as no more than a lone incident, opposition politicians said they expected the government's credibility to further erode.
"This is a regime which said the Sharif's shall not leave Saudi Arabia for 10 years. Now Shahbaz Sharif is in America well before even two years. What does this say about our government of the day," said one leader.
Gulf News 2003
