ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has asked former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return to the country and lead the party’s election campaign, the ex-premier’s spokesperson said on Sunday.
Sharif was found guilty in a corruption reference in 2018 by an accountability court in Pakistan and sentenced to jail for 10 years. He began to serve his sentence but was released on temporary bail on health grounds in November 2019 and allowed to seek treatment in London.
The former prime minister has not returned to the country since then.
“Yes, it is true, the party has requested Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan,” Mohammad Zubair, the official spokesperson for Sharif and his daughter, told Arab News.
“The next elections are extremely important for us to establish that we are the largest political party in Pakistan and we are facing Imran Khan, who has [successfully] created a foreign conspiracy narrative,” he added.
Khan, ousted via a parliamentary vote in April, has accused Washington of backing political parties in Pakistan to remove him from power. The allegations have been categorically rejected by the US.
Zubair admitted the foreign conspiracy narrative is popular among Pakistan’s middle-class population. “In any case, rule number one of politics is to never underestimate your opponent and we want to be led by the best team,” he added.
Ex-PM Imran Khan’s political party has given a one-month ultimatum to the government to announce a date for early elections in the country. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rejected Khan’s demand and said polls will be held next year, as per schedule.
Zubair said Sharif’s return to Pakistan will be subject to the timing of the general elections in the country. “We want him to come back, settle down and then lead the election campaign,’ Zubair said. “It is not easy to travel the length and breadth of the country.”
On Saturday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told local media the party has requested Sharif to return to Pakistan to lead its election campaign.
Sanaullah had added that the government is considering amending the legislation which would help repeal the lifetime ban imposed on Sharif by a Supreme Court judgment in the Panama Papers case against him.
“There should be an amendment and there is almost a consensus among everyone [political stakeholders] that it should have a specific time limit,” he told Pakistani news channel Geo News.
Sharif has been permanently disqualified from contesting elections or holding public office following a Supreme Court ruling in 2018.
The lifetime ban handed down by the apex court said lawmakers disqualified under Article 62 (1)(f) of the constitution cannot hold public office again in their lifetime.
Sharif, then PM, was found guilty in 2017 on charges of concealing assets related to the Panama Papers revelations. The supreme court ordered him removed from office and he was subsequently jailed.
