PML-N ‘clueless’ about Nawaz's homecoming

Information minister refutes reports of supremo's return a day after Rafique predicted elder Sharif's homecoming

ISLAMABAD:

At a time when Punjab is just over a month away from witnessing general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership remains clueless about whether or not the party supremo Nawaz Sharif would be coming back to lead fire up the campaign.

For months, the PML-N leadership has constantly been casting the PML-N’s top leader as the ‘only hope of the nation’ – an attempt to counter PTI chairman Imran Khan and his growing popularity – and has frequently predicted his 'imminent homecoming'.

However, time and again, the expected deadlines or predictions have backfired.

Once again, amid the chatter of the elder Sharif's return, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb refuted on Monday the rumours as well as news reports that Sharif was returning to Pakistan anytime soon.

To a question whether Sharif is finally coming back and if he would spend the last 10 days of Ramzan in Saudi Arabia before coming back to Pakistan, the information minister said that there was “no news so far” in this regard.

She didn’t object to the comment that there was no plan for Sharif of returning to Pakistan yet and only rumours are making rounds.

The minister has refuted Sharif’s return just a day after Minister for Railways and Aviation Khwaja Saad Rafique said that Sharif would soon return to the country and give an outline of the new justice system and economy.

The PML-N-led coalition government had come to power on the promises to turn around an economy in dire straits, reduce inflation and oil prices, revitalize growth and bury the politics of the opponents – mainly Imran Khan’s – for once and all. However, it has so far only managed to burn its political capital and currently fighting to make a comeback in what once considered its stronghold – Punjab.

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Before Rafique, several other party leaders had announced an imminent return of the elder Sharif, who had gone abroad in November 2019 in an air ambulance to receive medical treatment in London a month after he was released on bail from a seven-year sentence for corruption by a court.

Since November 2019, from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to his niece Maryam Nawaz and from Defence Minister Khawaja Asif to several other key party leaders, it has repeatedly been announced that Sharif would return “soon” but that hasn’t happened. Several PML-N leaders, including Javed Latif, had to chew their words as the deadlines that they gave for Sharif’s return turned out to be false.

Latif used to frequently say that Sharif was about to arrive in Pakistan. In August 2022, he claimed that Sharif would return in September of that year. That didn’t happen as in September Latif said he was not sure about Sharif’s return.

Later in November, Asif while speaking on the floor of the National Assembly announced that Sharif would be in Pakistan the next month – December. The deadline lapsed some three months ago.

Not long ago, PML-N leadership would proudly say that its ticket had become a hot cake and Imran Khan’s politics were over. However, after losing Punjab to PTI, the PML-N ruling alliance got anxious and those who were confident that their party’s ticket or support was enough to win elections started feeling that things were not in their control and they needed to come up with something that would work, like calling Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan and start campaigning.

The plan has yet to materialize, especially, when the PTI is apparently taking lead in the political battle despite dissolving Punjab and KP assemblies in an attempt to force general elections on the federal government.

To rub salt on PML-N’s wounds, PTI has dominated the mainstream and social media at a time when the ruling PML-N is pinning all hopes of winning the political battle without knowing when will Sharif finally return to lead them.

Political commentators say that the court cases and sentences have also barred Sharif's return till now. PML-N leadership was criticized when PM Shehbaz and key ministers had flown to London to seek guidance from Sharif as he couldn’t come back to the country he ruled thrice because of the legal hurdles he faced.