Aziz asked me to arrange plane for Sharifs deportation: Pak Foreign Secretary

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had asked him to arrange a special aircraft to deport former premier Nawaz Sharif to Jeddah on September 10.

Islamabad, Oct 31 : Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had asked him to arrange a special aircraft to deport former premier Nawaz Sharif to Jeddah on September 10.

The foreign secretary said Aziz telephoned him on September 6 and asked for arranging a VVIP aircraft with the help of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

Chief of protocol for foreign affairs Nazir Ahmed and PIA chairman Zafar A Khan, and principle secretary to the premier seconded the Foreign Secretary's statement in the apex court.

Right from September 6, arrangements were being made to violate the decision of the Supreme Court in the Sharif case by none other than the Prime Minister himself; the Dawn quoted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, as saying.

The apex court adjourned the proceedings till November 8, the court considered it appropriate to adjourn the matter with instructions that the judgment passed in the Sharif case holding that any citizen of Pakistan could not be restrained from entering the country still held the field and, therefore, should be implemented in letter and spirit, the daily reported.

The Chief Justice also ordered Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum to consult the government who should be summoned for committing contempt of court.

"[The violators] have been making a mockery out of justice. You have to point out who we issue notices to," the CJP told the AG.

"Then we will be proceeding against the PM for violating court orders and the foreign affairs secretary will be coming in the witness box to depose his statement," the chief justice said, adding that Aziz could also make his statement before the bench when he would be proceeded against.

Qayyum accepted that no one could stop Sharif from coming back.

"Give me some time for a statement [to be filed with the court] so that the same saga is not repeated," he said.

Sharif's counsel Advocate Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim said requested the court to summon the person who had violated the decision.

He said the contempt of court proceedings would go on but, in the meantime, the government should make a statement that Sharif could return to Pakistan any time.

ANI