'Pakistan will not renew ex-Premier Sharif's passport'

KARACHI, Pakistan

With the document set to expire at midnight on Tuesday, Pakistan’s government has announced it will not issue a new passport to three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, the country’s interior minister, told reporters in the capital Islamabad that Sharif's passport will not be renewed in an attempt to speed up his extradition from the UK.

“The government will not renew his passport, which is valid until midnight today [Tuesday],” the minister said.

Once the document expires, the former prime minister – who has been in London since November 2019 reportedly for medical treatment – will not be able to travel anywhere on a Pakistani passport, Ahmed said.

“As of tomorrow, he will have only one choice; that is to come back to Pakistan,” he asserted, adding that the document cannot be renewed because the ex-premier is on Pakistan’s no-fly list.

“If he wants to return, the government can give him permission within 72 hours,” he said.

According to experts, it is difficult for Islamabad to seek Sharif's deportation since Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with the UK.

Ismat Mehdi, a Karachi-based legal expert, said the former premier can still travel after his passport expires.

“An expired passport does not bar him from traveling; he can still avail the facility of a travel document to travel outside the UK,” she told Anadolu Agency.

Sharif is yet to apply for the renewal of his passport.

“The government has no authority to cancel his passport. He is a son of this country. He will apply for renewal whenever he wants,” Senator Nihal Hashmi, a leader of Sharif’s center-right party, Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz, told Anadolu Agency.

Sharif’s 180-day visa for the UK, where he went for medical treatment after being granted bail from a seven-year jail sentence, has already expired.

A request for extension is pending with British authorities.

Sharif, 71, served had three stints as Pakistan’s prime minister – from 1990 to 1992, 1997 to 1999, and 2013 to 2017.

His first government was dismissed over corruption charges and his second term was cut short by a military coup.

In 2017, he was ousted from office by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal, which also led to the filing of three corruption cases.

He was convicted in two of the three cases, with one conviction subsequently suspended.