Islamabad, October 21(Press Ki Taquat)
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is set to arrive here on Saturday after a four-year self-imposed exile in the UK, months ahead of the General Election.
The 73-year-old Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo will fly in from Dubai to Islamabad on a chartered plane, former finance minister and PML-N stalwart Ishaq Dar said.
The reason Nawaz is arriving in Islamabad instead of Lahore is that his touchdown in the Capital was necessary to make bail, earlier granted by the Islamabad High Court on Thursday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“Putting up an emphatic show for the homecoming of Nawaz Sharif is very important to tell everyone around that the PML-N still is a popular party in Lahore, which was once its citadel,” a PML-N leader from Punjab said.
“And the party leadership here will succeed in it, as a lot more is at stake in this regard.” He said Nawaz’s arrival would give a much-needed impetus to the party at a time when the country was heading for general elections in January. “He will lead the party polls campaign and become the premier for the fourth time,” he said.
According to the party, only Nawaz will speak at the public meeting.
The PML-N has also hired two small aircraft to shower rose petals in Lahore on Saturday.
Nawaz left for London in November 2019 on medical grounds after a higher court granted him bail for four weeks. By that time, he had served half of his seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia corruption case.
The Islamabad High Court on Thursday granted him protective bail until October 24 in both cases after NAB did not oppose the petitions filed by him.
He stepped down as Pakistan’s prime minister in 2017 after he was disqualified for life from holding public office by the Supreme Court after a probe into his family’s wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers leak.
