Nawaz passport issue: Jeddah consulate seeks two more days for decision

By Shahzad Raza

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has realised that the government will not renew the passports of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, party sources said.

“I don’t think the government will renew his (Nawaz Sharif) passport before the local bodies election,” Muhammad Siddiqul Farooq, PML-N information secretary, told Daily Times on Sunday.

He said the passport renewal followed by Nawaz Sharif’s journey to London would stir the domestic political situation. But, he added, every citizen was entitled to a passport. He said the government would not risk renewing his passport before the local government elections because it feared that Nawaz’s political activity would weaken the government’s position.

By law, the PML-N leader said, any Pakistani citizen could get his passport renewed within seven days, but the former prime minister had been waiting for “official clearance”. In a press statement, he said that Pakistani Counsellor General in Jeddah Maqsood Akhter had told Mr Sharif’s family that no decision had been made regarding the renewal of the former prime minister’s passport.

According to the PML-N, the consul general had told Capt (r) Safdar, son-in-law of Nawaz Sharif, that he should check the status of his in-laws’ passport on July 12 (Tuesday).

The diplomat also informed the Sharif family that on Monday he would leave for a 10-day visit to Islamabad and his subordinate, Hassan Raza, would coordinate with the Sharif family in his absence.

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