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Hasan Sharief granted British visit visa

Hasan Sharief, younger son of Pakistan's deposed and jailed premier Nawaz Sharief, has been granted a visit visa by the British government.

Sharief, who is in Abu Dhabi, however, said he did not wish to make an asylum application as "I consider Pakistan my home and indeed hope to return when it is personally safe for me to do so".

He said a visa was finally granted to him and he would be "coming back" to Britain in a day or two.

A statement by lawyers on his behalf in London said Sharief's multiple-entry visitor visa to Britain expired while he was in Doha in the Arab state of Qatar in early May to meet government officials who he felt might have been helpful in trying to resolve Pakistan's conflict.

He sought to obtain a new visa from the British consulate in Doha. But after several interviews at the consulate his application was rejected on the basis that "there was already existing correspondence from me to the home office in which I requested that I be allowed to stay in the United Kingdom under compassionate circumstances as I had been living in London as a student at the time of the military coup and could not return to my home in Pakistan", he said.

He also refuted the impression in reports that by initially refusing him re-entry into Britain, the British government appeared to be supporting General Pervez Musharraf's regime.

"On the contrary I recognise that the British government has taken a strong stance against the military coup in Pakistan. They made it absolutely clear that they will not accept a death penalty for my father, whatever the offence was," he said.

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