Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his wife Kulsoom and younger brother Shahbaz will not visit Pakistan for the burial of Mian Mohammad Sharif whose body was due to arrive in Karachi in the early hours of Monday from Jeddah, a spokesman said.

Siddiqul Farooq, central information secretary of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N), said the Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia had informed the family in Jeddah that the government would not allow the trio. Other family members could accompany the body and stay in Lahore for three days "strictly according to the official instructions," the envoy told the family, according to the party spokesman.

"Nawaz Sharif has declined to make any request to the government for permission or accept any conditions to attend the last rites of his father which is a fundamental right of every member of the family," Farooq said. Mian Sharif died at the age of 85 after a prolonged illness.

The main point of contention over the issue of whether the Sharif brothers should accompany their father's body home centres on the announcement by the Sharif family that funeral prayers for Mian Sharif will be offered this afternoon at the Data Darbar shrine in the heart of the city.

The Punjab government is stated to be opposed to a gathering at this congested spot. Family sources say the Punjab government wishes the body to be flown from the airport to Raiwind by helicopter for a "private burial".

"This is clearly not possible. My grandfather was a public figure and thousands have arrived across the country for the burial. Funeral prayers will be at Data Darbar and then the body taken for burial to Raiwind," Hamza Shahbaz, the son of Shahbaz Sharif, said.

Hamza, the brother of the late Mian Mohammad Sharif, Mian Meraj and other close relatives remained busy the whole day receiving mourners condoling the death. They included former President Rafiq Tarar, and many PML-N leaders, as well as lawyers, industrialists and traders.

Thousands of workers have gathered in the city to participate in the funeral, and the party leaders have warned "no effort should be made to cordon off Raiwind and prevent them reaching there." "If the plans are to prevent people reaching Raiwind, or the prayers at Data Darbar, the city's holiest shrine, being blocked, they will not be accepted. Party activists must be allowed to pay their last tributes to Mian Sharif," PML-N Punjab President Zulfiqar Khosa stated.

Senior government officials said they could not explain why the Sharif family had been denied permission to accompany the body of their father home for burial.

"I can't say why this decision has been made. You need to ask those responsible. But it is in the best national interest," Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed said.

Some sources close to the government said there had been a "re-think" late on Saturday after suggestions the Sharifs may prolong their stay in Pakistan, move a court against their ouster or use the visit for "political oneupmanship" creating complications for the government.

A spokesman for the Sharif family at the Saroop Palace in Jeddah, in a faxed statement yesterday, said: "The Pakistan Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Mian Mirza, met the family and conveyed the denial of the Pakistan government to Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif and Kulsoom Nawaz to return for the burial of Mian Sharif."

Senior PML-N leader and former federal minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali said he had spoken to Nawaz who had said that he told the Pakistan Ambassador to Saudi Arabia that "I am in no condition to start negotiating with the Pakistan government at this tragic time."