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Sharif
Deportation Unconstitutional: Pakistani Opposition
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Sharif back to Saudi Arabia soon after he flew into Lahore in defiance of government orders
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By
Asif Farooqi, IOL correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
May 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Opposition party Pakistan
Muslim League(N) slammed the government for what it called
"blatant" violation of constitution, court orders and basic
human rights when it denied entry to the party leader Shahbaz Sharif in
Lahore on Tuesday, May 11.
“This
move is violation of the constitution and we will go to the courts to
challenge the government for deporting our leader” Mushahidullah Khan,
vice president PML(N) told Islamonline.net on Sunday, May 16.
The
government had committed a violation of constitution and contempt of the
court order, Khan said in a phone interview from Lahore.
He
said constitution gives the right to every Pakistani citizen to live in
his homeland and the apex court of the country had issued an order in
the same direction a month ago.
Authorities
in Pakistan deported the leader of opposition party Pakistan Muslim
League (N) Mian Shahbaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia within an hour of his
arrival from London, where he spent three years and half in exile,
information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a press conference in
Islamabad on Tuesday.
A
group of security officials escorted the PML (N) leader to the VIP
lounge where his travel documents were sorted and was boarded on another
flight to Jeddah after a brief medical checkup.
He
did not offer any resistance. However he pleaded that he may be allowed
some rest as he was not feeling well.
Before
departing for his home city, Shahbaz had said in London that only his
“dead body could be deported” from Lahore to Jeddah.
Deportation
Challenged
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Supporters look out from a police van as they are arrested during a rally on the return of Sharif in Lahore
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Meanwhile,
the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) challenged last week in the
Supreme Court the deportation of its leader Shahbaz Sharif to Saudi
Arabia, Indo-Asian News Service reported.
After
submitting the petition against Shahbaz's deportation, PML-N chairman
Raja Zafarul Haq told IANS the government had gone against the Supreme
Court's verdict last month, which said Shahbaz could return to Pakistan
at any time as it was his right to do so under the constitution, it
added.
Haq
said Shahbaz decided to return to Pakistan after the Supreme Court's
detailed decision that no one could stop any Pakistani citizen from
returning home because it was the right of every Pakistani to live in
the country under article 15 of the 1973 constitution.
"Article
190 says that whenever the apex court gives any decision on any matter,
every section of the state machinery is bound to obey the decision.
"But
the administration, in contrast to the constitutional provisions,
deported Shahbaz while disobeying the court's decision," he said.
Arresting
Protestors
Earlier,
the police arrested at least 2000 members of PML(N) party who traveled
to Lahore from various parts of the country to receive their leader.
Lahore city was put under heavy police cordon. Passengers traveling into
the city were thoroughly checked.
Police
had arrested thousands of workers and leaders of the party, including a
son of Shahbaz Sharif on his way to the airport, Khan added.
Another
local leader of the party, Bin Yamin, told Islamonline.net from Lahore
that police had clashed with party workers at many places in the city.
He said many of his workers had sustained minor injuries.
A
senior police officer confirmed to Islamonline.net that "law and
order situation" had been created at various places in the city and
a few dozen people were taken into custody.
Rashid
said Shahbaz has been sent to Jeddah where the rest of his family
members, including elder brother and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
were living since December 2000 when they were sent into exile following
a bloodless military coup in 1999.
Nawaz
Sharif, his brother Shahbaz and several other male members of the family
were sentenced by the courts to death and life imprisonment before they
were allowed to leave the country after an agreement brokered by the
Saudi Royal family.
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Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League chant anti government slogans
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Rashid
said the former ruling family was sent into exile on their own request
and a formal agreement was signed by the two brothers and other members
of the family.
He,
however, refused to release the document to the press. Sharif family
denies signing any such agreement.
Exiled
Pakistani former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had relinquished the charge
of his party on Saturday July 3, 2002, formally bringing his political
career to an end.
Sharif
nominated
his younger brother as his successor.
Central
Executive Committee of (N) during the party polls, elected Shahbaz
Sharif as the party president. Younger Sharif did not have any
contestants for the post.
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