Sharif will return within a month: Punjab governor

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman has joined the ranks of those predicting Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan “within a month.”

“Sharif is returning to Pakistan within a month and I will go to the airport to receive him,” the governor told journalists, adding that PML-N chief organiser Maryam Nawaz, too, would be back within a week.

While PML-N leaders Rana Sanaullah, Ayaz Sadiq, Javed Latif, Ataullah Tarar and Malik Ahmad had earlier predicted their leader’s return, especially in the wake of dissolution of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) assemblies, the governor reiterated these claims even as Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah boarded a commercial flight to the UK to meet the Sharifs at Stanhope House, the party’s de facto headquarters in London.

The governor’s claim of Sharif’s return within a month speaks to the “uneasiness” in party ranks over his long absence as the local leadership believes the party may develop cracks if Sharif does not return.

The former premier and his daughter have been in the UK since November 2019 and October 2022, respectively, for different medical reasons.

“In the face of the rising popularity of the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) chairman who was ousted as the prime minister last April, most of PML-N local leadership is unanimous that the party needs Sharif to be in Pakistan ahead of the polls if it wants to score a victory, especially in Punjab that was once the party’s stronghold,” a PML-N leader said.

Sanaullah believed Sharif would get bail ahead of his return. Besides filing a bail plea in coming days, the PML-N-LED coalition may go for “relevant legislation” in the parliament to ease his return.

“The coalition government may make certain amendments that would help repeal the ban imposed on Sharif by a Supreme Court judgement in the Panama Papers case against him,” the PML-N leader said.

Separately, it was reported that because of their rigid positions, outgoing Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League-q (PML-Q) supported by the PTI and leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly Hamza Shahbaz of the PML-N are unlikely to reach consensus on any name to become the caretaker chief minister.

The mater will finally go to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), meaning that all the four names will be sent to it for a final decision.