Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party on June 23 reiterated its demand for Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja’s immediate resignation for failing to hold “free and fair” elections and protested against the “injustices” being committed against the party, according to media reports.

“Leaders of 71-year-old Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, along with other National Assembly members, led a protest rally from the Parliament to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad,” The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Led by Leader of Opposition and party leader Omar Ayub, the protesters demanded the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Raja and election commission members for alleged poll rigging.

The controversial February 8 general elections in Pakistan were marred with massive rigging allegations. During the rally, Mr. Ayub called for the immediate resignation of CEC Raja and other members of the ECP, alleging that the only job of the Election Commission was to conduct clean and transparent polls, but it failed to fulfil its constitutional duty, The News International newspaper reported.

“The protesters were stopped from reaching the electoral body’s central office, as large contingents of security personnel were deployed outside the ECP building,” the report said. Slogans were also chanted for the release of party founder and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

Mr. Khan has been incarcerated in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since September last year. He was shifted to this prison from the District Jail Attock, where he had been lodged after his arrest on August 5, 2023, following his conviction in the Toshakhana case.

Addressing the rally, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Khan said, “The doors of courts have been closed on Opposition leaders; our women are in jail, and history will remember them.” He said that it was a matter of regret that all the Parliamentarians were coming out on the streets and protesting for the release of PTI founder Khan,” the report said.

“Today, we have come out against this injustice. Our voice is not being heard in this House (Parliament). Whatever we said in the House, our voice was silenced. We want the women’s release. This is a clear violation of human rights,” he said.

Addressing the protesters, the party’s central leader, Asad Qaiser, said, “On May 9, we were targeted on the pretext that we are not negotiating with anyone. Our voice is not heard in Parliament, which amounts to our gross abuse.”

After the controversial general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party formed a coalition government after intense negotiations following a fractured poll verdict. Independent candidates – a majority backed by the PTI party – won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats contested in the February 8 election.

Representational image of Pakistan Supreme Court
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) in Pakistan’s Punjab has been jolted as the provincial assembly’s speaker restrained 27 lawmakers on reserved seats after the Supreme Court’s ruling suspending a lower court’s verdict denying the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) its share of reserved seats for women and minorities, according to media reports.

Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan issued the ruling barring the women and non-Muslim members appointed to the reserved seats via past notifications of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

According to the ruling, they cannot function as members or partake in assembly proceedings until their status is clarified by either the ECP or the Supreme Court.

Of the suspended MPAs, 23 belong to the PML-N, two to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and one each to Pakistan Muslim League -Quaid-e-Azam Group (PML-Q) and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), the Dawn newspaper reported.

The decision by the speaker was taken on a point of order raised a day ago by opposition lawmaker Rana Aftab of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed SIC during the house proceedings.

Mr. Aftab had argued that the apex court had suspended the decision of the ECP of allocating the reserved seats of the SIC to other parties on the plea that the SIC had neither contested elections nor had submitted a list of nominees for the seats reserved for women and minorities.

But Speaker Mr. Khan ruled that he had sought the opinions of the advocate general as well as the provincial law department and would take a decision only on receiving their reports, the Dawn reported.

After the beginning of the house proceedings on May 10, the speaker soon read out the SC order and gave the ruling that Mr. Aftab’s point of order was lawful and suspended the 27 members immediately.

When Mr. Aftab pointed out that the suspended MPAs had unlawfully voted for the resolution condemning the May 9 violence, the chair said he should have raised the issue when the resolution had been put to vote a day ago.

The Supreme Court’s decision and the Punjab Assembly speaker’s action puts the ruling coalition in the National Assembly in a dilemma as it is set to lose nearly two dozen members ahead of the crucial budget session.

President Asif Ali Zardari on May 10 summoned the National Assembly session on May 13 and the SIC members are expected to seek a similar ruling from Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

The ECP had allocated reserved seats to the parties in the National Assembly in proportion to the general seats won by them in the February 8 elections.

The ECP had withheld the notifications on 23 reserved seats — 20 for women and three for minorities — due to the dispute on the allocation of the seats after the decision of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independents to join the SIC, the report said.

Later, the ECP refused to allocate these seats to the SIC and issued notifications distributing these seats to the parties in the ruling coalition headed by the PML-N.

The ECP allocated 15 seats reserved for women to the PML-N, four to PPP and one to the JUI-F. It allocated one seat each reserved for the minorities to the PML-N, the PPP and the MQM-P.

As a result, PML-N became the largest party in the National Assembly with 123 seats while the tally of the PPP and the JUI-F rose to 73 and 11, respectively, the report said.

File photo of Maryam Nawaz.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has once again landed in trouble, as the Session Court has been moved against her for donning a police uniform while attending a passing-out parade on April 25, according to ARY News.

In his plea, the plaintiff claimed that Ms. Nawaz’s wearing of a police official’s uniform was “unlawful.” The plea stated that no one is permitted to wear the official state institution outfit. The petitioner said that despite Ms. Nawaz’s plea to the police, no action was taken against her.

The petitioner begged the judge to provide instructions to file a complaint against Ms. Nawaz, the Chief Minister of Punjab. The case’s hearing was postponed by the Court until April 29, as per ARY News.

Wearing the uniform, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) MS. Nawaz, notably participated in a police passing-out parade in Lahore. The Chief Minister of Punjab bestowed a guard of honour and presented awards to the Police Training College’s outstanding achievers, reported ARY News.

Notably, Ms. Nawaz, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominee, had made history by becoming Punjab’s first female Chief Minister. She secured 220 votes in the election, triumphing over her opponent, Rana Aftab Ahmad of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), who received zero votes due to a boycott by SIC members.

The Punjab Assembly session, presided over by newly-elected Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan, witnessed opposition members from the Sunni Ittehad Council boycotting the proceedings. Speaker Mr. Khan declared that only elections for the Chief Minister would take place, and no lawmakers were permitted to speak during the session, according to ARY News.

Supporters of Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s party ‘Pakistan Muslim League-N. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got the lion’s share in the key by-elections by winning at least two National and 10 provincial Assembly seats, according to the unofficial results on April 22.

By-elections were held on Sunday on 21 National and provincial Assembly seats amidst tight security and suspension of cellular and internet services in specific districts of Punjab and Balochistan to maintain law and order.

Two seats each of the National Assembly in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one seat in Sindh, while twelve seats of the Punjab Assembly and two each of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies were up for grabs.

Major political parties including the PML-N, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) participated in the by-polls. However, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl of Maulana Fazlur Rehman boycotted the polls.

The Election Committee of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to issue the final results but private media channels shared the outcome based on the results of individual polling stations.

According to the Dunya News channel, the PML-N won two National Assembly seats while one each was grabbed by PPP, SIC and an independent candidate.

The preliminary result showed that PML-N won 10 out of 16 seats in the provincial assemblies, including nine from Punjab and one from Balochistan. One seat each was won by the PPP, the SIC, the Istehkam Pakistan Party, the Pakistan Muslim League, the Balochistan National Party and an independent candidate.

Cases of sporadic violence were reported and in one case, a supporter of the PML-N was killed after a clash with PTI voters in the Narowal area of Punjab. However, overall law and order was kept under control.

Earlier, the general elections were held across the country on February 8 to elect representatives for the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. But polls were cancelled for one National Assembly, two Punjab Assembly and one seat of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly respectively.

In Punjab, NA-132 (Kasur) and NA-119 (Lahore) were vacated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, while Shehbaz also gave up two of his provincial assembly seats in Lahore. He, however, retained his NA-123 seat in the National Assembly.

Apart from these leaders, candidates who had won more than one seat opted for a chosen seat after the elections, leaving the Election Commission of Pakistan to organise by-elections on 21 seats, including five National and 16 provincial assembly seats.

A day earlier, the federal government announced that cellular services would remain temporarily suspended in specific districts of Punjab and Balochistan during the by-elections. The request for the suspension was made by the ECP.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued a statement, saying that the decision has been taken to safeguard the integrity and security of the electoral process.

Elaborate security measures have been taken by the authorities to control the law and order situation, with the deployment of regular army troops to maintain peace during the day-long process of by-elections.

The Punjab government had also asked the federal government to suspend mobile internet services in the province’s 13 districts and tehsils on April 21 to maintain law and order.

The move came despite severe criticism by media and political leaders of a similar step on February 8 when mobile services were suspended.

Former Pakistan prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad. File photo
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Former Pakistan prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has been nominated by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as its candidate for the coveted post of Senate chairman as part of the power-sharing agreement between his party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), according to a media report on Friday, April 5, 2024.

A notification nominating Mr. Gilani was issued on Thursday by Jamil Soomro, political secretary to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Geo News reported.

Post-poll agreement

According to a post-poll agreement between the PPP and the PML-N that formed a coalition government after the February 8 general elections, the post of president, Senate chairman and governorship of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were given to the PPP, while the posts of Senate deputy chairman, National Assembly speaker and governorship of Sindh and Balochistan were given to the PML-N.

Presently, the 71-year-old veteran leader, who served as the country’s prime minister from 2008 to 2012, has the support of 24 senators from the PPP, 19 from the PML-N, four from Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), three from Awami National Party (ANP), three independents and one from the National Party, taking the tally to 54, the report said.

If he gets the support of three Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Pakistan) (MQM-P) and five Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) senators, then the tally will be 62, suggesting a comfortable position for the ruling coalition nominee.

On the other hand, jailed former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has the support of 20 senators and one each from the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and PML-Q, taking its tally to 22.

If the JUI-F opts to sit with the opposition, then it would have a total of 27 members, the report said.

Eleven Senate seats from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are lying vacant as the Election Commission of Pakistan has postponed the election there.

Mr. Gilani’s election victory would set a unique record as he would be the first person to have served as the National Assembly speaker, prime minister and Senate chairman.

The Senate is expected to meet for its inaugural session on April 9 when the newly-elected members of the upper house of Parliament will be administered oath.

According to parliamentary sources, following the recent appointment of Senator-elect Ishaq Dar as presiding officer because of the slots of chairman and deputy chairman Senate lying vacant, preparations are afoot to summon the session.

Both Sadiq Sanjrani and Mirza Muhammad Afridi had completed their three-year terms as chairman and deputy chairman before the recent Senate elections. Therefore, it was necessary to appoint a presiding officer before the Senate session.

It is for the first time that the House would be holding a session without polling in an assembly. Hence, the now 96-member Senate will be shy of 11 members when it meets, Geo News reported.

Last month, Mr. Gilani won a Senate seat in the National Assembly from Islamabad, polling 204 of the 301 votes cast, while his rival Sunni Ittehad Council’s Ilyas Mehrban got only 88 votes.

In the February 8 general elections, Gilani won a National Assembly seat from Multan in Punjab province.

Gilani, who took oath as a member of the lower house on February 29, then vacated the seat on March 22.

Ishaq Dar leaves after a press briefing in Islamabad. File photo
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Ishaq Dar, a four-time former finance minister, has been appointed as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, as the new government settled in to tackle myriad problems at the domestic and external fronts, including its relations with India and other neighbours.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, March 11, 2024, inducted 19 members into his Cabinet, ending the tenuous wait for the completion of government formation in the cash-strapped country.

Mr. Dar, an ethnic Kashmiri and chartered accountant by training, is a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). He is also a confidant of the party head and former three-time premier Nawaz Sharif.

With little experience in managing foreign affairs, he has been given the important portfolio when Pakistan’s ties with its neighbour India as well as Afghanistan are at their lowest ebb.

The two sides broke off trade ties and lowered diplomatic presence in each other’s capital in August 2019 after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.

Pakistan has suffered due to a hiatus in trade as it used to import several items and raw materials at cheaper rates from India.

Mr. Dar, as an economic guru, favoured economic relations with the arch rival but it was not possible due to the Kashmir issue.

Mr. Dar’s position on Kashmir, which is the chief stumbling block in ties between Pakistan and India, should not be different from the general narrative of Pakistan that it should be solved according to the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

In a tweet on February 5, the Kashmir Solidarity Day, this year, Mr. Dar said Pakistan was “committed to its unwavering political, moral and diplomatic support to the just struggle of our Kashmiri brethren for their right of self-determination, as enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Charter and relevant UN resolutions.” I

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country. New Delhi has told Islamabad that it desires normal neighbourly relations with it in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

This stand was reiterated by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on March 11, 2024 in New Delhi.

“We have never closed our doors to talking to Pakistan … but the terrorism issue should be fair, square at the centre of the conversation. It is the major issue … I am not saying there are no other issues. But I am not going to duck that issue for the sake of talking,” he said.

Mr. Dar, being an economist, should also be aware of the pitfalls of continuous antagonism with India which is the world’s fifth-largest economy.

However, any change in ties with India should come from the powerful establishment of the country.

Meanwhile, the Information Ministry in a statement elaborated on the various portfolios assigned to other Ministers.

Khawaja Muhammad Asif was appointed as minister for defence, defence production and aviation, Ahsan Iqbal as minister for planning, development and special initiatives, Azam Nazeer Tarar law and justice, human rights, Attaullah Tarar as minister of information and broadcasting, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh as minister for maritime affairs and Muhammad Aurangzeb as Minister of Finance, Revenue.

Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the only woman Minister, was appointed as Minister of State.

Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, an influential minority leader, who has been sworn-in as a provincial minister in Pakistan, making him the first Sikh to occupy a ministerial position in post-partition Punjab.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, an influential minority leader, has been sworn in as a provincial minister, making him the first Sikh to occupy a ministerial position in post-partition Punjab.

Belonging to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, Mr. Arora has returned to the Lahore provincial assembly for the third term after winning the February 8 polls.

Mr. Arora, 49, was recently elected Pardhan (president) of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee and also as the ambassador to the Kartarpur Corridor.

He was administered the oath along with 17 others on Wednesday.

Mr. Arora has been allotted the portfolio of minorities of Punjab province in the cabinet of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, incidentally, also the first woman to hold the post in the country.

According to sources, Mr. Arora has close connections with the military establishment.

“Singh’s brother is also looking after the affairs of the Karatarpur Corridor,” another member representing the Christian minority community of Punjab, Khalil Tahir Sindhu told Press Trust of India on Thursday.

Born on October 11, 1974 at Nankana Sahib and hailing from the Narowal district, Mr. Arora was also the first-ever Sikh member of the Punjab provincial assembly taking oath in 2013. He has done post-graduation in social enterprise and studied at the Government College, Lahore, Punjab University, Lahore and Harvard Business School in the US.

He also served as a member of the National Commission for Minorities, chairman of the Standing Committee on Commerce & Investment and remained as Patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council.

According to Mr. Arora’s profile on the official website of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, he is also a renowned human rights activist and a social worker, who played a prominent role in protecting the rights of Sikh Community in Pakistan and is credited with the passage of ‘The Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act 2018.’ Due to his efforts, Pakistan has become the first country where the Sikh Marriages Registration Act is enforced, it said.

He also served as a member of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Government of Punjab; as a Member of the National Commission for Minorities, under the Ministry of National Harmony from 2011-13; and as General Secretary of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee during 2009-13.

He was awarded the National Human Rights Award in 2016 by the President of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sindhu was among the 17 others who too were inducted into the Punjab cabinet. He was assigned the portfolio of human rights.

Mr. Sindhu had earlier served as a minister in the 2013-18 Punjab cabinet led by Shehbaz Sharif, who is now the prime minister for the second term.

Senior PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on February- 26, became the first-ever woman Chief Minister of a province in Pakistan when she was elected to head the Punjab province, describing it as an ‘honour’ for every woman in the country.

Maryam, the 50-year-old senior vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, won the chief ministerial elections amidst a walkout by lawmakers of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).

In her maiden speech at the provincial legislature, Maryam thanked God, her father, Nawaz Sharif, uncle Shehbaz Sharif and the lawmakers who voted for her.

Maryam said that she was happy to sit in the seat where her father used to sit. “My father trained me how to run the office,” Maryam, considered the political heir of Nawaz Sharif, said.

“Today, every woman of the province is proud to see a woman Chief Minister,” she said and hoped that the tradition of female leadership would continue in the future as well.

The PML-N leader said she had seen hard times like imprisonment but was thankful to her opponents for making her strong.

“But I will not seek revenge,” she said, indirectly referring to former Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.

Maryam received 220 votes and won the chief ministerial elections for the politically crucial Punjab province, home to 120 million people. She defeated Rana Aftab of the PTI-backed SIC, who received no votes as his party boycotted the election.

“The votes have been counted according to which Maryam has obtained 220 votes, and SIC candidate Rana Aftab Aftab secured zero votes,” said newly-elected Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan while presiding over the session.

To win the Chief Minister’s election, a candidate needs to win the backing of the majority, which is 187 members in the House that currently has 327 seats, according to Geo News. The newly-elected Chief Minister, Maryam, enjoyed the support of the majority in the House.

The PTI-backed SIC’s 103 members have taken oath from its total 113 lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly. Ms. Maryam was backed by PML-N allies, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), and the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP).

The walkout by at least 103 SIC members— including the PTI-backed independent lawmakers— was staged after the SIC nominee for Chief Minister, Mr. Aftab, was not permitted to speak at the point of order.

“In today’s session, only elections will be held for the Chief Minister. You cannot speak in today’s session,” Speaker Khan told the SIC candidate as he tried to speak up.

The speaker eventually moved forward with the proceedings to elect a new leader of the House after efforts to bring back the boycotting lawmakers went in vain, according to Dawn newspaper.

Before boycotting the session, the opposition chanted slogans of “Queen of Mandate Thieves” as the PTI claimed that Maryam had lost his seat with a margin of over 800 votes in the February 8 polls besides the party’s over 100 Punjab Assembly seats that had been stolen. It decried that the irony is a “defeated” candidate has become Chief Minister.

Taking a swipe at the walkout by the SIC lawmakers, Maryam said, “Today, I am upset that the respectable members of the opposition benches are not present here […] I wish they would be a part of the political and democratic process.” She said that despite several challenges and difficulties, her party members and the PML-N never left the ground empty.

“If the opposition was present today, and if they had protested during my speech, I would have been happy,” she said.

Meanwhile, the PTI nominee for the chief ministerial post, Mr. Aftab, said, “It seems as if dictatorship persists even today,” according to the report.

Speaking to the media in Lahore as the Punjab Assembly voted for the new leader of the House, Mr. Aftab said, “I am a political worker […] the way I had to pass from there [the assembly], this is shameful for me, and it is also a moment of reflection for all politicians.” He added that the PTI wanted justice as per the law and Constitution to take “this manoeuvred democracy forward”.

Maryam paid a visit to her mother’s grave at Jati Umra before going to the Punjab Assembly, where the election for the post of Chief Minister took place.

In a post on X, the PML-N said Maryam also visited the graves of her paternal grandparents.

“For the first time in the history of our nation, a woman will become the CM Punjab. Maryam Nawaz Sharif will be the first woman to take the oath as CM Punjab!” the PML-N said in a post on X earlier in the day.

Senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah, while speaking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly, has said that Maryam will carry her father, Nawaz Sharif, and uncle Shehbaz Sharif’s legacy as Punjab Chief Minister, Geo News reported.

Terming the need to address prevailing political instability as the “biggest challenge”, Mr. Sanaullah said that everyone, including the bureaucracy, would cooperate with Maryam during her term as the Chief Minister.

Maryam is considered the political heir of the 74-year-old PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who surprisingly nominated his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, 72, as his party’s prime ministerial candidate.

The PML-N clinched both speaker and deputy speaker offices in the Punjab Assembly.

In a marathon session of the Punjab Assembly on February 24, the lawmakers elected PML-N leader Malik Ahmad Khan as the custodian of the House and Zaheer Iqbal Channar as his deputy.

The PML-N won 137 seats, while independents backed by 71-year-old Khan’s PTI party won 113 in the Punjab Assembly. Separately, 20-odd independents, not PTI-backed, have already joined the PML-N.

The PTI-backed independent candidates have joined the SIC to get reserved seats for women and minorities besides saving their elected members from being forced to change their loyalty by the military establishment.

However, the SIC may not get reserved seats for women and minorities, leaving the PML-N with a simple majority in Punjab.

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif releases a dove as he arrives to address a welcoming rally in Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct. 21, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed applications on his return to Pakistan to restore pending appeals against his convictions in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia corruption cases.

Sharif, 73, the three-time Prime Minister and supremo of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), returned to Pakistan on October 21 after spending four years in self-imposed exile in London.

Sharif signed the applications at Islamabad Inter­national Airport on October 21

The applications, prepared by his legal team, will be filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Division Bench and are likely to be heard on October 24, a PML-N lawyer told Dawn newspaper.

Sharif’s legal team will also present a petition seeking protective bail. Besides, Sharif is also supposed to appear before an accountability court on the same day, the report said.

The former Prime Minister was convicted in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases and was declared a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicle case, which is pending before an Islamabad accountability court.

He was on bail in these cases when he left for the U.K. in 2019 on medical grounds.

On July 6, 2018, a few days before the general elections, accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir convicted Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif and her husband, Captain Safdar Awan, in the Avenfield Apartments case that was investigated by a six-member joint investigation team formed to look into the Panama Papers revelations.

While an Islamabad High Court division bench virtually cleared Sharif in the Avenfield apartments case, calling the accountability court’s decision “not correct“, Sharif’s absconder status meant that he was not exonerated despite the court observing a lack of substantial evidence against him, the report said.

The detailed order said the accountability watchdog could not give a satisfactory answer to the question of whether the prosecution had “discharged the onus required on its part”, it said.

The prosecution had to prove that Sharif had purchased Avenfield Apartments in the name of Maryam through corrupt and illegal practices and that she, being his dependent, had aided and abetted him by concealing the true ownership.

It also had to prove that when the properties were acquired, Sharif was a public office-holder.

“There does not exist on record any evidence to the effect,” the court order said.

Nawaz Sharif. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Ahead of his return to Pakistan after four years, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on October 21 deplored the “very chaotic” situation back home and expressed confidence that his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party was “competent” to take the cash-strapped country out of the present crisis.

Pakistan court acquits former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 37-year-old ‘bribe’ case

“The 73-year-old PML-N supremo will fly in from Dubai to Islamabad on a chartered plane,” former Finance Minister and PML-N stalwart Ishaq Dar said.

“After staying an hour or so in Islamabad, he will leave for Lahore to address a rally at Minar-i-Pakistan,” Mr. Dar told journalists on October 20.

Talking to reporters at the Dubai airport, he deplored the existing situation of the country which in his words was far worse than in 2017 when he was disqualified by the Supreme Court and 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,” he said, adding that it was time to think about why the country came to the situation.

“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,” he said before his departure from Dubai airport.

“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.” When asked about the elections, he said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was empowered to decide the date of the elections.

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

According to the party, Nawaz will likely land in Islamabad at 12.30 p.m. and leave for Lahore after a couple of hours. He may first go to his Jati Umra residence before leaving for Minari-Pakistan later in the day.

The reason Nawaz is arriving in Islamabad instead of Lahore is that his touchdown in the capital was necessary to make bail, earlier granted by the Islamabad High Court on Thursday, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“Putting up an emphatic show for the homecoming of Nawaz Sharif is very important to tell everyone around that the PML-N still is a popular party in Lahore, which was once its citadel,” a PML-N leader from Punjab said.

“And the party leadership here will succeed in it, as a lot more is at stake in this regard.” He said Nawaz’s arrival would give a much-needed impetus to the party at a time when the country was heading for general elections in January. “He will lead the party polls campaign and become the premier for the fourth time,” he said.

In Lahore, the PML-N leadership, including Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz, spent a busy day on Friday to ensure that caravans of the party workers from Balochistan, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan left for Lahore and those who have to come from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab will leave on Satur­day morning.

Even though the party has an ambitious target of assembling one million people, the organisers on Friday placed only 10,000 chairs. Thousands of Punjab police officials, both in uniform and plain clothes, will perform security duties in and outside the venue.

The PML-N has also categorically told ticket aspirants that their candidature may not be considered if they fail to meet the required target of bringing people to the venue on Saturday, the Dawn report said. According to the party, only Nawaz will speak at the public meeting. The PML-N has also hired two small aircraft to shower rose petals in Lahore on Saturday.

Nawaz left for London in Nove­m­ber 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 the Al-Azizia corruption case.

During the four years since then, Nawaz was declared a proclaimed offender in Al-Azizia and Avenfield corruption cases for his continuous absence from the proceedings on appeals against the sentences.

The Islamabad High Court on Thursday granted him protective bail until October 24 in both cases after NAB did not oppose the petitions filed by him.

He stepped down as Pakistan’s 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. Nawaz Sharif has consistently denied any wrongdoing and termed it as a politically motivated case.