Shehbaz says Nawaz returning to start process of prosperity, development

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said Wednesday that the party supremo Nawaz Sharif was returning to Pakistan to restart the journey toward prosperity and development, Aaj News reported.

Addressing a workers’ convention in Lahore, Shehbaz said that the elder Sharif was not coming back for revenge.

Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N’s leader and a former three-time premier, is expected to make a return to Pakistan on October 21.

During his Lahore address today, Shehbaz said Nawaz’s “crime” was that he worked tirelessly for the country’s development, made Pakistan a nuclear power, and established schools and colleges for young people.

“This was Nawaz’s crime and that is why there was rigging in the 2018 elections […] and you and your children were deprived of education, medical treatment, prosperity, and development,” he said.

“I am here to tell you that, if God wills, your son is returning on October 21,” the PML-N president said. Shehbaz vowed that Nawaz would return to restart the journey toward prosperity and development which had been abandoned.

“If God wills, your son will return on October 21,” the PML-N leader remarked.

Nawaz would return, Shehbaz said, to pick up where he left off on the path to prosperity and growth, he added.

PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said earlier that party supremo Nawaz Sharif would [“surrender to the court”][2] upon his return from London.

Nawaz has been in exile since 2019 and has primarily lived in London after being disqualified for life in the Panama Papers case.

The possibility of Sharif’s return was increased after the Senate passed amendments to the Election Act, changing the limitations of how long a parliamentarian can be disqualified.

In rules passed by the upper house on June 17, in cases where the duration has not been specifically outlined, a person’s disqualification to run for provincial or central legislatures will not exceed five years.

They also have a chance to overturn their disqualifications with the help of four sections of the Supreme Court (Review of Judgements and Orders) Act 2023.

Sharif left for London on November 19, 2019, after the Islamabad High Court released him on bail from a seven-year sentence for corruption. His bail was approved on medical grounds for eight weeks in the Al Azizia case.

He was diagnosed with an immune system disorder. The 70-year-old PML-N supremo had got bail in two corruption cases and is facing another reference by the National Accountability Bureau.

His departure had come after deliberation and undertaking by his brother and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who stated he would “ensure the return of his brother within four weeks or on certification by doctors that he has regained his health and is fit to return back to Pakistan”.