Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif is expected to return from a self-imposed exile to the country by mid-September, according to a family source. The elder Sharif is currently residing in London.

The source from the Sharif family said that he will leave for Pakistan “after a month”. This comes after his lawyers and political aides advised him to end his visit to European and Middle Eastern countries and return to Pakistan immediately during the caretaker regime in the country post the dissolution of the National Assembly, Geo News reported.

However, some members of his party have advised the ex-PM to return by mid-September. “Nawaz Sharif’s decision to return to Pakistan after ending nearly four years of exile is final and everything is in order,” the source said.

Former PM Shehbaz Sharif had announced before the dissolution of the National Assembly had announced that Nawaz will return to the country and will become the next PM if the PML-N manages to win the general elections scheduled for later this year. He and Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Sharif have been in touch with him over his return.

The source also said that Shehbaz will reach London to meet Nawaz within a week, along with prominent PML-N leaders and that the party is planninga major welcoming ceremony for the former PM. 

Nawaz Sharif, who has served as the Prime Minister for three non-consecutive terms, was disqualified in 2017 by the Supreme Court over corruption allegations related to the Panama Papers Leak, and was deemed ineligible to hold public office for life in 2018. Before he went to London in 2019, Nawaz was serving a seven-year prison sentence in Lahore for his role in the Al-Azizia corruption case.

He was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on “medical grounds”. His appeals against the conviction are currently pending in the relevant courts.

In June, a Pakistani court acquitted Nawaz in  37-year-old case involving him allegedly transferring a “precious state land” to one of the country’s leading media house owners as a “bribe”.

His political comeback might have suffered a blow as the Pakistan Supreme Court last week ruled in a unanimous verdict that the Review of Judgements and Orders Act, 2023 was ‘unconstitutional’. The elder Sharif was seeking to challenge his lifetime disqualification under Article 62 of the Constitution. They would have gotten the opportunity to fulfill their political ambitions amid the upcoming general election, had the verdict been in favour of the petitions

However, former Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has claimed that the verdict would have no impact of Nawaz’s disqualification and his return to Pakistan.

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