Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s three-time prime minister, will return home on Saturday after four years in self-imposed exile, poised to make a political comeback ahead of elections.
The South Asian country is experiencing overlapping security, economic, and political difficulties ahead of elections that have already been pushed back to January 2024, with Sharif’s main opponent, the passionately popular Imran Khan, imprisoned.
“This is a time for celebration and hope. His return is good news for Pakistan’s economy and people”, said Khawaja Muhammad Asif, a senior leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Sharif has been in Dubai for many days and will fly from there to Islamabad, then to Lahore, where his fans will gather for a welcome home rally, according to his party.
The PML-N has been hyping his return for months, hoping that Sharif’s political power and ‘man of the soil’ swagger could revitalize the party’s declining support.
The former leader, on the other hand, has a graft conviction and an incomplete prison sentence hanging over him.
The Islamabad High Court granted Sharif protective bail until Tuesday earlier this week, reducing the fear of imminent arrest when he returns to the nation.
Sharif served as Prime Minister three times but was deposed in 2017 and barred from politics for life after being convicted of corruption.
He served less than a year of a seven-year sentence before being granted permission to seek medical treatment in the United Kingdom, rejecting repeated court demands to return during the regime of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
His prospects changed when his brother Shehbaz Sharif came to power last year and his government managed legal changes, including restricting MPs’ disqualification from running for office to five years.
Nawaz Sharif, who is frequently seen wearing a red Gucci scarf, has watched his political fortunes rise and fall based on his connection with Pakistan’s formidable military establishment — the country’s actual kingmakers.
Politicians in Pakistan are frequently embroiled in court proceedings that, according to rights monitors, are coordinated by the powerful military, which has ruled the country directly for more than half of its history and continues to wield enormous authority.
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