Exclusive | It’s Official, Former PM Nawaz Sharif to Return to Pakistan Second Week of October: Top Sources – News18

It has been confirmed that former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to the country in the second week of October. Sources said the PML(N) supremo will likely reach Pakistan between October 10 and 15. He will be facing the courts and legal proceedings on his return from a self-imposed exile in the UK since 2019.

According to top sources close to the leader, all charges against the three-time PM are fabricated and illegal. Nawaz is sure that he will get full justice, they said, adding that the Pakistan Muslim League (N) wants to contest elections under his leadership.

The dates for the elections in Pakistan have not yet been decided but they are likely to be held in the beginning of 2024. Earlier, too, Nawaz Sharif’s brother and former PM Shehbaz Sharif had said the leader will return in October.

“We held consultations with the senior leadership of the party, and we have decided that our quaid [leader] Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan in October,” Shehbaz had said last month.

Nawaz has been living in self-imposed exile in the UK since November 2019. He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018.

The 73-year-old politician was serving a seven-year sentence at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on “medical grounds”.

According to media reports, the decision for Nawaz to return around mid-October was taken after Shehbaz held two meetings with him when he visited London. Nawaz stepped down as the PM in 2016 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified him for life for concealing assets. His appeals against the conviction are pending in relevant courts.

(With PTI inputs)