The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) has asked the Supreme Court to hear afresh the petition against Gen Pervez Musharraf for violating the court’s order in sending party leader Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia in 2007.

An SC bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had overturned a ban on the Sharif brothers to contest elections and hold public offices, but Sharif was sent back to Saudi Arabia when he returned to Pakistan on September 10, 2007.

PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said in a statement that Musharraf had violated the Supreme Court’s verdict, the Constitution and fundamental rights by sending Mr Sharif back to Saudi Arabia, Dawn reports.

Iqbal also said that if PML-N were provided a fair opportunity to contest the elections, and had Sharif been allowed to stay in Pakistan, his party would have emerged as the single largest party in the 2008 general elections.