Nawaz set to return to Pakistan, vows to resolve its problems

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief will fly in from Dubai to Islamabad on Tuesday in a chartered plane, former finance minister and party leader Ishaq Dar said.

Sharif told the media in Dubai that the situation in Pakistan was "very chaotic" and worse than what it was when he left the country in 2017 after being disqualified by the Supreme Court.

He was later convicted by an accountability court in two cases of corruption.

“The situation is not better than 2017... and it pains me to see all this that our country has gone back instead of going forward,” the 73-year-old veteran politician said.

He said it was time to think about why Pakistan came to the situation.

Nawaz speaks

“The situation in Pakistan is very chaotic and that is very worrying,” Nawaz was quoted as saying by Geo News. “We are competent enough to solve the problems of the country.

“People are suffering in Pakistan and it is painful but there is hope that we can improve the situation. We created the mess and only we can fix the situation.”

Talking about his conviction in 2017, he said that he had left everything to God and that he was successfully returning to Pakistan.

Sharif will spend an hour or so in Islamabad to seek bail and then leave for Lahore, his and his party’s stronghold in Punjab province.

Sharif’s arrival is widely expected to give a much-needed impetus to the party at a time when the country was heading for general elections in January.

He is expected to leader the party’s election campaign and try becoming the prime minister for a fourth time.

PM again?

In Lahore, Sharif will address a public meeting for which the PML-N has vowed to bring in several thousands of people from all over the country.

Sharif has been prime minister of Pakistan three times: 1990-93, 1997-99 and 2013-17.

He stepped down as prime minister in 2017 after he was disqualified for life from holding public office by the Supreme Court after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers leak.

He left for London in 2019 on medical grounds after a higher court granted him bail for four weeks. By that time, he had served half of his seven-year jail term in one corruption case.

He was later declared a proclaimed offender in some corruption cases.

On Thursday, the Islamabad High Court granted him protective bail until October 24.

Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz Sharif is also a former prime minister of Pakistan, has denied any wrongdoing and termed the cases against him as politically motivated.

(With agency inputs)