LAHORE: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to arrive in Pakistan on November 2.
He is currently in Jeddah where he performed Umrah along with his mother. The ex-premier will depart for London where his wife Kulsoom is receiving medical treatment.
Kulsoom has been battling lymphoma- a form of cancer. She began her first round of chemotherapy earlier this month in London and had undergone three surgeries since August. Senator Pervaiz Rashid while taking to reporters Sunday said that Nawaz Sharif would become part of judicial proceedings despite reservations and would appear before the accountability court on November 3.
He maintained that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) would not be able to prove anything against Sharif. Rasheed pointed out NAB’s “poor performance” in the references against Ishaq Dar and said that they won’t find anything against Nawaz.
“This process of accountability is not only a test for the Sharif family but also for the judiciary. We have high expectations from the courts,” he said.
Earlier, it was reported that Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan from London on January 7 next year.
On October 19, an accountability court in Islamabad had indicted the former prime minister as well as his daughter and son-in-law on corruption charges stemming from documents leaked from a Panama law firm.
A lawyer for 67-year-old Sharif entered a plea of not guilty. Maryam Nawaz and her husband Capt (r) Safdar also attended the hearing and pleaded not guilty.
Earlier, Sharif had told reporters in London that he would go back to Pakistan to attend the next court hearing, scheduled for October 26. In his televised comments, he said he was removed from office on a trivial charge. The charges stem from a trove of documents – known as the Panama Papers – that investigators say showed the family held unreported assets overseas. The family has denied any wrongdoing.
After leaving the courtroom, Maryam Sharif again denied the allegations as “baseless.” She said her father would return to Pakistan and that they would “face these cases with courage.” The former prime minister is unlikely to be arrested on his return home as the court had already granted him bail. Sharif’s political future has been in doubt since July, when the Supreme Court disqualified him from office over corruption charges.
Rana Sanaullah, a senior leader of Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said there were “hidden hands” behind his dismissal and the spate of corruption allegations, without elaborating.
Nawaz’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, meanwhile, left for London on Sunday to inquire after the heath of his sister-in-law.
According to sources, Shehbaz, the Punjab chief minister, would hold a meeting with the former prime minister, who is currently in Saudi Arabia and expected to fly back to London soon.
Published in Daily Times, October 30th 2017.
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