Islamabad Aug 16 :- The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed Monday that the party’s chief and former three-time PM Nawaz Sharif would return to the country in September, ending a self-imposed exile in London on medical grounds.
Saying injustice was done to Nawaz, minister and party stalwart Javed Latif told reporters that PML-N that leads a coalition government in Pakistan would not let him to go back to jail upon his return. The government is considering relevant legislation to ease the party chief’s return.
Nawaz was sentenced by an accountability court in 2018 to seven years in prison for corruption. The same year, he was also sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison and slapped an £8-million fine (Rs 1.3 billion) in the Avenfield properties reference.
In 2019, the Lahore high court suspended his sentence and allowed him to go abroad for medical treatment. Subsequently, he went to London in November 2019 and never returned to Pakistan since then.
Latif said a level playing field in Pakistani politics was impossible without the PML-N supremo’s presence in the country. Criticising former PM Imran Khan, the minister asked whether those (army generals) who had removed Nawaz and facilitated Imran’s rise to power had still not learned their lesson.
“Some people (a reference to top military officers), are still pulling his (Imran’s) strings today. We know everything,” the minister said.
Responding to a question, Latif said PML-N did not want friendship or enmity with those (military establishment) who “made and broke governments” and the party had a clear stand that it wanted all institutions, including politicians, to operate within their legal and constitutional limits.
Interior (home) minister Rana Sanaullah had said the coalition government might make certain amendments that would help repeal the life-time ban imposed by the Supreme Court on Nawaz in the Panama Papers case against him.
In the face of the rising popularity of former PM Khan, who was ousted from office in April this year, the entire PML-N leadership is unanimous that the party needs Nawaz to be in Pakistan ahead of the polls if it wants to score a victory.
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