LAHORE – Pakistan’s convicted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return home after living in a self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom for four years.
On November 16, 2019, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had allowed Sharif to travel abroad for four weeks for medical treatment, saying the duration could be extended based on medical reports. The two-judge bench consisting of Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem had directed the government of the then Prime Minister Imran Khan to remove Sharif’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL) without any conditions.
Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has made elaborate arrangements to welcome him in Lahore and is trying to bring the maximum number of people to his Minar-e-Pakistan rally on October 21 (today). Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and younger brother Shehbaz Sharif are overseeing the arrangements to welcome him to Lahore.
Just a little trailer of what's to come tomorrow !#خوش_آمدید_نوازشریف pic.twitter.com/fcv1aScfQ0
— PMLN (@pmln_org) October 20, 2023
Talking to the media in Dubai before flying to Pakistan, Sharif said he left Pakistan in 2019 with a heavy heart and he is now happy to return to his own country. He said Pakistan was put into the reverse gear and the current state of economic, social and political affairs in the country is much worse than 2017, when he was removed from power after his trial in the Panama Papers case. He said his party was capable of improving the prevailing conditions and it would do it. He said that Pakistan has fallen and it has to rise again with its own will power; nobody will come and help it rise.
When I was leaving Pakistan, I felt completely disheartened. Now, as I return, I am filled with immense joy, and I believe Pakistan will get back on the path of development!
#خوش_آمدید_نوازشریف pic.twitter.com/H7KEFuPRjK
— PMLN DIGITAL (@pmlndigitalpk) October 21, 2023
Sharif diverted a question from a reporter about the May 9 riots and said that his party owns May 28, not May 9. Pakistan conducted nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, when Sharif was the prime minister of Pakistan.
میں نے کہا تھا کہ میں سب کچھ اللہ پہ چھوڑتا ہوں میں نے سب کچھ اللہ پہ چھوڑا ہوا ہے۔ ہم 28 مئی والے ہیں 9 مئی والے نہیں۔#خوش_آمدید_نوازشریف pic.twitter.com/mqGIRG7IWl
— PMLN (@pmln_org) October 21, 2023
According to former finance minister Ishaq Dar, Sharif would fly from Dubai to Islamabad by a chartered plane on Saturday afternoon.