PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif announced on Friday that his party’s legal team had cleared former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan on October 21, claiming that the elder Sharif would face the law and the Constitution.
Nawaz, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2019, fled to London in the middle of his seven-year prison sentence for medical reasons.
Due to his consistent absence from hearings over a four-year period, the courts declared Nawaz a proclaimed criminal in the Al Azizia and Avenfield graft cases.”
Shehbaz announced last month that his elder brother would return to the nation on October 21.In response, the PML-N announced Nawaz was ready to face ‘all kinds of circumstances’ upon his return.”
“Earlier today, the Lahore High Court got a new medical report on Nawaz.” The PML-N supremo had “some residual anginal symptoms” that would necessitate “frequent follow-up investigations” in London and Pakistan, according to the statement.
Shehbaz told reporters in Lahore this afternoon, “As you are aware, Nawaz Sharif will, God willing, return on October 21.”
I want to respectfully remind you that he is coming, so don’t ask if he is coming or not.
The PML-N president began his speech by recalling the 16-month tenure of the former Pakistan Democratic Movement under his leadership and the obstacles that faced the then-government, including floods, inflation, protests, and the prospect of default.
“What would have happened if Pakistan had defaulted?” he questioned, before outlining the “consequential impacts” of such a situation.
“But God helped us avoid default, and I am grateful to Nawaz for his support.”
“I would have resigned if our quaid had told us to save our politics, but he said to save the country.”, he said.
He praised the elder Sharif’s accomplishments for Pakistan, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the country’s atomic status, but lamented the “painful events that have destabilized Pakistan’s progress.”
“The PML-N won the elections in 2017-18, but the results were tainted by massive rigging, and a pre-planned model was used to undermine the country.”
But, Shehbaz said, with Nawaz’s arrival, the path to prosperity would resume.
“On October 21, he will reveal his plan to change the country’s future at Minar-e-Pakistan.” It is a program that will accelerate Pakistan’s prosperity and alter its destiny.”
He mentioned that Nawaz has good links with a number of other nations, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and that he would use these ties not to “take loans, but to get investment.”
When confronted about comments about him being the “establishment’s man,” Shehbaz replied, “What benefits did I get?” and described how he and his older brother spent months in jail.
During the press conference, the PML-N president was asked about journalist Imran Riaz Khan, who returned home from a four-month absence last month.
However, Shehbaz stated that he was unaware of the situation and stated, “I will look into it.”
“I am not in favor of this… Nawaz Sharif and I had been missing for several months, and our parents had no idea where we were.
But we never complained, we didn’t destroy army sites, and we didn’t spread this to our people,” Shehbaz added, referring to the May 9 unrest, when protests erupted across the country in response to the first detention of PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
In response to a query about the accountability of former army generals, he lamented that accountability in Pakistan’s 75-year history had been limited to politicians and urged for accountability across the board.
Furthermore, the PML-N president emphasized the importance of holding free and fair elections and accepting the results.
