Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan on October 21: Ex-Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will return to the nation from London on October 21 to steer the celebration’s political marketing campaign within the upcoming elections, ending his over 4 years of self-imposed exile within the UK.

“Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan on October 21,” his youthful brother and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, who’s at the moment in London, stated on Tuesday.

The celebration founder can be given a grand welcome upon return, Shehbaz stated in a press release after a gathering of the PML-N’s prime management chaired by Nawaz in London.

Nawaz, 73, had left for London in November 2019 after the Lahore High Court granted him four-week permission permitting him to go overseas for his remedy. But he by no means returned to Pakistan the place he was convicted of corruption and jailed.

He was convicted within the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption instances in 2018. He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail within the Al-Azizia Mills case earlier than he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on “medical grounds”.

Shehbaz, 71, has beforehand stated that Nawaz would be the subsequent prime minister if the celebration returns to energy within the basic elections.

In August, Shehbaz stated that his elder brother would return to Pakistan in September to face his pending courtroom instances and lead the celebration’s marketing campaign for the overall election.

However, the plan was modified after the Election Commission of Pakistan determined to conduct a recent delimitation of Constituencies on the premise of the brand new census, delaying the overall elections, which have been scheduled to be held throughout the 90-day constitutional interval for the reason that August 9 dissolution of Parliament.

According to Geo News, the three-time prime minister’s return was delayed until mid-October, not due to the ECP announcement however over the recommendation of celebration loyalists that September is simply too scorching and extreme for large-scale political gatherings, making mid-October a greater time for return.

The choice to return round mid-October was taken after Shehbaz held conferences with the PML-N supremo when the previous visited London in August.

In 2016, Nawaz stepped down because the prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him for all times for concealing belongings. His appeals in opposition to the conviction are at the moment pending within the related courts.

He was disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2017. In 2018, he grew to become ineligible to carry public workplace for all times after a Supreme Court verdict within the Panama Papers case.

He was anticipated to come back again when his celebration got here to energy after Imran Khan was toppled in April final yr however the expectation was not fulfilled.

However, his PML-N celebration maintained that he would come again earlier than the election and lead the celebration. Sharif is taken into account a crowd-puller and a serious pressure to deliver voters to the polling stations.

Published On:

Sep 12, 2023