Nawaz Sharif set to return next month, says minister
DEPOSED Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to the country from London next month, ending a three-year self-exile, a federal minister in Pakistan’s ruling PML-N said on Monday (15).
Mian Javed Latif ’s announcement comes days after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan claimed that efforts were on to bring back Sharif to the country under “some deal”.
“Former prime minister Sharif will return to Pakistan from London in September. Upon his return, the PMLN will not let him go to jail,” Latif told reporters in Lahore.
He said Sharif, 72, should come to Pakistan as a “level-playing field in Pakistani politics is not possible without his presence”.
The minister blamed the former chief justice of Pakistan, Saqib Nisar, for disqualifying Sharif in a “frivolous” Panama Papers case.
Rana Sanaullahm, the interior minister, said “amendments” might be made through parliament to undo the lifetime disqualification of the three-time prime minister.
Sharif has been living in London since November 2019 to undergo medical treatment after the Islamabad high court allowed him a four-week reprieve.
He was serving a seven-year jail sentence in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore in the Al-Azizia corruption case before his departure.