ISLAMABAD – A seat has been booked in Nawaz Sharif’s name for aJeddah-bound flight for Saturday.
A public meeting he was to address in Sargodha on Sunday (Dec 31) has beenrescheduled for Jan 6 because of his unavailability.
The Punjab chief minister is already in Saudi Arabia on an “official”visit. The Saudi government had sent a special plane for his travel to thekingdom on Wednesday. He is believed to have prepared the ground for thevisit of his elder brother.
Nawaz Sharif will meet the top Saudi leadership, including King Salman andCrown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and “discuss with them various aspects offriendly relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia”, a family friendsaid, but did not elaborate further.
For lack of a clear agenda of the visit, the opposition interprets it as astep towards winning the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) for theembattled Sharifs who are facing multiple cases in courts and challenges inthe political field.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah of thePakistan Peoples Party objected to the Sharifs’ Saudi visit, saying it wastantamount to humiliating a nuclear power by inviting foreigners tointerfere in its internal affairs.
“It looks like the matter is towards [seeking] forgiveness and that an NROmay be on the horizon,” he said in Lahore, adding: “If such a situationarises, I think we’ll have to shut our courts and go home.”
Mr Shah said he felt sorry to see that foreigners were being involved inlocal matters, adding that “if Saudi Arabia intervenes [for reconciliationbetween the Sharifs and the establishment] it will be shameful thatPakistan — a nuclear power — cannot make its own decisions”.
He saw a big difference between the NRO signed by the PPP with formermilitary ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf and the one the N-League was trying tostrike now.
In Islamabad, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan vowed to resistthe Sharifs’ move for winning another NRO.