LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday evening left for Saudi Arabia, where he will join his brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique. Nawaz Sharif left for Saudi Arabia on a Saudi Airlines flight from Lahore, and is expected to return on January 2, 2018, in time for his next court hearing. The ousted PM is facing a few corruption cases in the country. He had to step down as chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after he was disqualified as prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal. The Sharif family is facing three corruption cases linked to the scandal. During the visit to KSA, the PML-N leadership is expected to meet important personalities, including Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and “discuss with them various aspects of friendly relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia”, a family friend said, but did not elaborate further. For lack of a clear agenda of the visit, the opposition interprets it as a step towards winning the national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) for the embattled Sharifs who are facing multiple cases in courts and challenges in the political field. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah of the Pakistan Peoples Party objected to the Sharifs’ Saudi visit, saying it was tantamount to humiliating a nuclear power by inviting foreigners to interfere in its internal affairs.
Published in Daily Times, December 31st 2017.
