Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan in October: Brother Shehbaz

Pakistan's former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that his brother and former premier Nawaz Sharif will return to the country in October and ahead of general elections.

Nawaz Sharif, 73, has been living in self-imposed exile in the UK since November 2019. He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018.

He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on "medical grounds".

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo will return to Pakistan in October, Shehbaz told media persons in London, the Dawn newspaper reported.

We held consultations with the senior leadership of the party, and we have decided that our quaid [leader] Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan in October, Shehbaz said, alongside his older brother.

Earlier this month, former prime minister Shehbaz, 71, said that his elder brother Nawaz would return to Pakistan in September to face his pending court cases and lead the party's campaign for the general election.

However, the plan was changed in the last few days after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided to conduct a fresh delimitation of Constituencies on the basis of the new census, delaying the general elections, which were scheduled to be held within the 90-day constitutional period since the August 9 dissolution of Parliament.

According to Geo News, the three-time prime minister's return has been delayed till mid-October, not because of the ECP announcement but over the advice of party loyalists that September is too hot and severe for large-scale political gatherings, making mid-October a better time for return.

The decision to return around mid-October was taken after Shehbaz held two meetings with the PML-N supremo when the former visited London last week, the report said.

"It's the severity of weather that is being kept in mind in deciding the return date of Nawaz Sharif. There could be a further change, but for now, the date of 15th October is final, and further discussions will take place around it," the report quoted a source as saying.

Some Sharif family loyalists advised Nawaz to come to Pakistan immediately after ending his Europe and Middle East visit, which started three months ago and ended three weeks ago when he reached London.

However, some PML-N leaders advised him to arrive in Pakistan after mid-September once the current Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial retires, the report said.