Chances of Nawaz returning soon dim

Former prime minister and PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif will be returning to London from Saudi Arabia whereas his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, will be returning to Pakistan in a few days, Sharif family spokesperson former governor Muhammad Zubair told The Express Tribune.

As the tenure of the PML-N led coalition government nearly draws to a close, the chances of Nawaz returning to Pakistan, during the reign of his brother as the PM, now seem non-existent.

Nawaz, whose arrival to the UAE sparked hope in the PML-N circles about his return to Pakistan soon after spending more than a month in the Arabian peninsula during which he held an important meeting with the PPP leadership, will be returning to London, where he has been living since 2019 on the pretext of treatment.

This time, Nawaz’s reason behind not returning to Pakistan, even after a slew of amendments to different laws to ease out his legal battles, was a non-conducive legal environment or to put it more directly, Chief Justice Umer Ata Bandial, which unsurprisingly was the very position reportedly taken by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif during a TV talk show.

Zubair said that he could not give an exact date as to when Nawaz would be leaving for London but it would be in a few days.

He said that Maryam would resume political activities upon her return.
Asked if there were any rallies planned for Maryam, he said wherever the party would require like leading a rally, she would be there, though there were no specific plans for rallies finalised as yet.

Asked when Nawaz would return, he said that Asif had revealed that the party supremo would return after Sept 16, and rest was easy to add up, alluding to Chief Justice Bandial’s retirement.

Maryam’s political secretary also confirmed that the PML-N senior vice president would return to Pakistan in a ‘few days’.

A PML-N source had earlier last month confirmed to The Express Tribune that Nawaz was not returning to Pakistan just as yet, citing a litany of legal battles that awaited him upon his return.

He had then revealed that once that SC Review Act matter was resolved, the PML-N could file an appeal to review the Panama case decision of disqualification, after which they would avail the five-year disqualification bar introduced recently and the cases and their decision created as a consequence would automatically become a question mark.

Even if not, they would appeal in the cases and to address his arrest issue, according to SAPM Ata Tarar, the PML-N might consider a protective bail.