PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif To Return To Pakistan Next Month: Outgoing PM Shehbaz Sharif

As Pakistan heads for general polls, outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will return to the country next month.

Shehbaz Sharif has said that he would travel to London to meet his elder brother, who has settled in London since November 2019 for health reasons, once the caretaker government takes control of the administration.

"Nawaz Sharif will come to Pakistan next month and will face the law and lead the election campaign," he told Geo News in an interview.

73-year-old Sharif 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. He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills reference before he was allowed to proceed to London on "medical grounds", according to a PTI report.

Nawaz Sharif was disqualified in 2017 by the Supreme Court. In 2018, he became ineligible to hold public office for life after a Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case. Before his departure to London on a four-week bail by the Lahore High Court on medical grounds, Nawaz Sharif was serving a seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case.

The Prime Minister also expressed confidence on his party's victory in the upcoming elections, and he would work as an active supporter of the party within a government led by Nawaz.

President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on Wednesday at outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's advice, marking an end to the current government's tenure three days ahead of its mandated period.