Pakistan court forbids arrest of Nawaz Sharif on his return

A Pakistan court on Thursday barred authorities from ar resting a former three-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, upon his expected return home on saturday from four years in self-imposed exile, his lawyer said.

Lawyer Azam Nazeer Tarar told reporters that Sharif had been granted protective bail, under which authorities could not arrest him until he himself appears before a court on October 24, adding thats harifwoul daddress a rally in the city of Lahore upon his return.

Sharif's younger brother, Shehbazsharif, wasprimeminister from 2022 until this year, when his government was replaced by a caretaker administration upon the dissolution of parliament in advance of a general election due early next year.

The younger Sharif welcomed the court's decision.

"He was implicated in absurd cases and subjected to mistreatment ," Shehbaz Sharif said on th ex social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.

"Any fair hearing would have established his innocence."

Tarar said Sharif would followup appeals against his convictions, which have been pending since he left, in the hope of overturning them and campaigning for the general election.

Upon his return on saturday, he would address a rally in his old stronghold of Lahore, Tarar said ." It is everyone' s constitutional rights to freely do political activities," Tarar said.

Sharif's party has said he would like to contest a seat in the general election but that would depend on the court over-turning his convictions.

Nawaz Sharif was in 2018 convicted on corruption charges, which he denied, in two cases and sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison.

Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to 14 years in jail in 2018