The Saudi Arabian government has given its approval to former premier Nawaz Sharif to go back to Pakistan and modalities are being worked out for his return in November, a senior leader of his PML-N party said on Friday.

“Saudi Arabia has already told Nawaz Sharif that he can go back to his country whenever he likes. We are working out the modalities so that he can return in November,” said PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

Hashmi’s assertion came a day after President Pervez Musharraf told a meeting of top leaders of the ruling PML-Q and its allies that Sharif would not return to Pakistan from exile before the general election, which is due by mid-January.

Sharif was arrested and deported to Saudia Arabia barely four hours after he returned to Pakistan on September 10. The former premier, who signed an agreement to go into exile in Saudi Arabia for 10 years in exchange for the dropping of his jail terms, had come back after Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that he was free to return.

A bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is currently hearing a contempt of court petition challenging Sharif’s deportation.

Musharraf is keen that Sharif should not return to Pakistan before the general election as this may upset negotiations between him and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to reach a possible power-sharing arrangement, political observers said.

In the past few weeks, Sharif has repeatedly said he intends to return to Pakistan ahead of the polls to lead his party in its campaign.

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