Islamabad, Aug 03: Exiled president of Pakistan Muslim League Shahbaz Sharif has filed a petition from the US, requesting an anti-terrorism court to allow him return to Pakistan to defend himself in a police encounter case. Sharif, a former Punjab chief minister and brother of premier Nawaz Sharif yesterday sent his application through fax and his spokesman Farrukh Shah submitted it to the court, which will hear arguments on maintainability of this application on August 7, reports here said.
Shahbaz, who is in New Jersey after undergoing cancer surgery, requested the court to recall the order declaring him a proclaimed offender and summon him through Pakistan's Embassy in the United States. He said he did not leave the country under a deal but the military rulers forced him into exile. "If summoned through the embassy, I would not waste a single moment to appear before the court. I am anxious to face judicial proceedings," he was quoted assaying by a Pak daily.
During the course of arguments on an application for the confiscation of Sharif's properties, his spokesman, Farrukh Shah, appeared in the court and submitted a photocopy of a typed message bearing the signatures of PML-N president and showing his residential address as 100-old Palisade Road, Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA. The court had declared Sharif a proclaimed offender on June 17 following his persistent absence from his trial on charges of getting five youths killed in Sabzazar in a fake police encounter five years ago.
The PML-N president claimed that he had been forced out of the country by the then military regime through "emotional blackmail". Bureau Report