Sharif chose to return to Saudi: Pak Govt

Islamabad, Sept 11: Pakistan's government said former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was sent to Saudi Arabia yesterday while attempting to return to the country after seven years in exile, himself chose the option of returning to the Desert Kingdom over arrest.

However, some attributed the decision to ''Saudi pressure.'' Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government did not force the former Prime Minister to return to Saudi Arabia because ''it was his own choice.'' ''We did not force him to return. I have been told that he was given two options -- either to go to prison or proceed to Saudi Arabia,'' the official APP news agency quoted Mr Aziz as saying in an interview to a foreign news channel last night.

Other ministers, however, said Mr Sharif was sent back into exile in Saudi Arabia because of ''mounting pressure'' on Pakistan from the Saudi government insisting that the former PM honour his agreement.

They also said Nawaz was given the choice upon landing at Islamabad of being put under arrest or deported, and he chose the latter option.

''Nawaz Sharif has gone to Saudi Arabia according to the same agreement that took him there earlier,'' Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told mediaperson.

Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz-ul-Haq also said Mr Sharif was sent back under pressure from Saudi Arabia.

PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also said Nawaz Sharif was given the two options, though he made conflicting statements about which choice the former Prime Minister made.

While Mr Sharif was still at the Islamabad airport, a statement by Chaudhry Shujaat said that the former PM had chosen arrest over exile. However, in a later statement issued in Islamabad and reported on private Geo TV channel after the deportation, the ruling party chief was quoted as saying that Mr Sharif had chosen to go into exile rather than be arrested.

UNI