London
\nFormer prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would return to Pakistan in October.
\n\u201cWe 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,\u201d he told media persons in London.
\nNawaz flanked Shehbaz and listened quietly as the latter made the announcement.
\nShehbaz did not specify a date when Nawaz would return. However, Geo News, citing informed sources, reported that the elder Sharif\u2019s date of return would be October 15. When Dawn.com reached out to party leaders earlier, PML-N Senator Afnanullah Khan said \u201cno date has been finalised yet\u201d.
\nShehbaz landed at Heathrow earlier this week to meet his elder brother, discuss key political developments in the run-up to the general election and set a date for the party supremo\u2019s return to Pakistan.
\nThe elder Sharif departed the country in November 2019 for medical treatment following his conviction in a corruption case. He has not returned since and faces multiple cases in Pakistan. He was deemed an absconder the following February. Later in 2020, courts declared him as a proclaimed offender.
\nEarlier this month, reports of Nawaz\u2019s impending return once again started making the rounds, but no official announcement was made from the PML-N supremo himself.
\nOver the last year, especially since the ouster of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the change at the helm in April 2022, at several points, some PML-N leaders claimed that the senior Sharif is \u201ccoming back to Pakistan next month\u201d.
\nOn Aug 10, in response to a question by an anchor, Shehbaz had said Nawaz would return in September.
\nMeanwhile, sources had told Dawn that senior leaders and legal brains in the party had been deliberating for the past few days over the timing of Nawaz\u2019s return and the cases he is facing in Pakistan.
\nTalking to reporters alongside his brother in London today, Shehbaz said: \u201cAll of you know that Nawaz Sharif\u2019s name was not there in Panama [papers] \u2026 he was included [in the investigation] through a conspiracy and no action was taken against other people whose names were actually there in Panama [papers].
\n\u201cNawaz Sharif will, God willing, come to Pakistan and face the law, there are no two opinions on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018PML-N to fully facilitate ECP for elections\u2019
\nIn response to a question on whether current and former judges would be punished, the PML-N president said transparent accountability was the need of the hour and should be held \u201cacross the board\u201d.
\n\u201cWithout it, Pakistan cannot move forward.\u201d
\nOn elections, Shehbaz asserted that his party had dissolved assemblies as per the \u201cspirit of the Constitution\u201d.
\n\u201cAfter this, it is the legal and constitutional responsibility of the chief election commissioner to hold elections. Our party, on the instructions of Mian Nawaz Sharif, held a meeting with the Election Commission of Pakistan today.
\n\u201cAnd it is certain that as a political party, we will fully facilitate the ECP for free, fair and transparent elections,\u201d he added.
\nShehbaz also decried that \u201cfake cases\u201d were made against him and his elder brother during the PTI tenure, adding that their political victimisation came forth to the world when they were granted clean chits by the courts.
\n\u201cNow Mian sahib will come to Pakistan in October and lead the election campaign,\u201d he added.
\nShehbaz also criticised a sitting Supreme Court judge for what he characterised as undue concern for PTI chief Imran Khan while not having the same sentiments for his brother and his niece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would return to Pakistan in October. \u201cWe 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,\u201d he told media persons in London. Nawaz flanked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[361],"class_list":{"0":"post-351667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-shehbaz-sharif"},"yoast_head":"\n