—– Says PML-N stalwart will face law, Constitution, share plan for future at Minar-e-Pakistan
LAHORE: Thrice ousted former premier Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan on October 21 and face the law and Constitution, said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday.
Speaking to the media in Lahore, Shehbaz said that his party’s legal team had cleared Nawaz, who has been residing in London in self-imposed exile since 2019, to return to Pakistan.
Nawaz left for London in the middle of his seven-year jail term on medical grounds. He has since been declared a proclaimed offender in the Avenfield and Al Aziza graft cases for his continuous absence from legal proceedings.
Earlier today, a fresh medical report was submitted before the Lahore High Court (LHC) stating that the PML-N supremo would require “frequent follow-up investigations” for “some residual anginal symptoms” in London and Pakistan.
“I want to respectfully say that you shouldn’t ask if he is coming or not, this is confirmed now,” asserted Shehbaz.
The PML-N stalwart had begun his address by speaking about the 16-month tenure of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government led by his party and recalled the challenges faced during his time in the premier’s office.
He referred to floods, inflation, protests and the risk of default that his government had faced.
“What would have happened if Pakistan had defaulted?” he asked, outlining the “consequential impacts” of such a situation. “But God helped us avert default and I am thankful to Nawaz for standing by us,” added Shehbaz. The former premier further said that if his party chief had told “us to save our politics, I would have resigned”. Nawaz told us to take up the challenge and save the country instead, he said.
He referred to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and making the country an atomic as examples of Nawaz’s contributions to the country while lamenting “painful events overturned Pakistan’s journey of growth”.
Shehbaz asserted that in 2017-18 the PML-N had won the elections but the results “were changed in massive rigging and a pre-prepared model was introduced to ruin the country”. –Agencies
