Islamabad, May 12: Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was sent to Jeddah after a last-minute phone call from president Pervez Musharraf to Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin-al Aziz, and the air-lifting along with harsh treatment of the media is proving to be a major embarrassment for the government. The police yesterday turned their ire on national and international media to prevent coverage of the airlifting of Shahbaz, who appeared to have pulled a major publicity coup for Pakistan's beleaguered opposition parties.
According to media reports, Musharraf called up the Saudi prince to inform that Shahbaz should be kept in exile in Jeddah as per the deal reportedly agreed in 2000. Correspondents traveling with Shabaz from London to Abu Dhabi and from there to Lahore said that he got a tip-off about the Saudi government's decision to keep him in exile before he left Abu Dhabi to Lahore, after which he decided to leave his wife and two daughters behind.

Once the Saudi government agreed to receive Shahbaz, police at Lahore airport quickly bundled him into a special plane, 87 minutes after his arrival and packed him to Jeddah along with a doctor and a team of commandos.
Bureau Report