Even after Shehbaz Sharif took oath as 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan, PML-N has ruled out the possibility of the immediate return of Nawaz Sharif to Islamabad from London.
The PML-N leaders are excited after the junior Sharif became the country’s PM, hoping that the party’s supreme leader will soon be among them. However, there are a number of factors that may not allow former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a flight back to Pakistan, reported Dawn.
Talking to Dawn, a couple of senior PML-N leaders said the party functionaries and workers were very happy to see Sharif junior as the Pakistan PM while looking forward to seeing Nawaz Sharif among them in the coming days.
“Nawaz Sharif has no immediate plans to return. The Sharif family thinks that his early return will establish the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) propaganda that he does not have serious health issues,” a senior PML-N leader from Punjab said. He further added, “The other factor Nawaz will weigh before deciding to return is how the 11-party coalition government functions in the coming months in the face of the growing PTI pressure for early elections.”
However, in reply to a question about the tentative date for Nawaz’s return, another leader close to the former premier, said: “Either just before the next polls or right after… If Nawaz gets some relief in the corruption cases ahead of the next elections, the party will press him to return to spearhead the PML-N’s election campaign. To match Imran Khan’s canvassing, the PML-N needs Nawaz around.”
Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab spokesperson Azma Bokhari told Dawn, “Mian Sahib (Nawaz Sharif) will return to Pakistan once his consultants allow him to travel.”
She also stated that after Shehbaz Sharif’s election as the PM, the party workers have become emotional and they want Nawaz Sharif to return soon, but the decision has to be taken on the advice of his doctors. “He will be here at an appropriate time,” she added.
An “ailing” Nawaz Sharif has been living in London since November 2019 for medical treatment after the High Court allowed him a four-week reprieve. He was serving seven-year imprisonment in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore in the Al-Azizia corruption case before his departure. In August last year, Nawaz Sharif filed an appeal with the British Immigration Tribunal after the Home Department refused to extend his stay in the country any further, citing his medical conditions. Prior to his exit, Shehbaz Sharif had submitted an undertaking to the Lahore High Court that his elder brother would return “within four weeks or on certification by doctors that he has regained his health and is fit to return back to Pakistan”, reported Dawn.
In a survey conducted earlier by The News International, Pak’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s popularity has always been on the rise across the country’s many provinces as compared to Imran Khan. (ANI)
