Nawaz Sharif
| Photo Credit: PTI

Pakistan’s three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is all set to retake the helm of the ruling PML-N next month to guide the party amid internal strife, seven years after he relinquished the post after being disqualified by the apex court.

Mr. Sharif, 74, will be elected president of the ruling party on May 11 in a meeting of the party leadership, a senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader told PTI.

In 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Mr. Sharif as premier and party president for his alleged corruption in cases related to the Panama Papers revelations about his illegal wealth stashed abroad.

He relinquished his position within the party following his disqualification, which also led to his departure from the prime minister’s office.

PML-N Punjab president Rana Sanaullah told a press conference that a decision to make Mr. Sharif the president of the party again was taken at a party meeting on Friday.

“A resolution was passed at the party meeting today to make the elder Sharif PML-N president to undo the injustice meted out to him (Nawaz) in 2017 by the Supreme Court,” Mr. Sanaullah, a former interior minister, said.

The party will request Mr. Sharif on his return from China to accept the president’s office of the party.

“Nawaz Sharif was removed from the party president’s office through a conspiracy. Now Nawaz has been acquitted in all (corruption) cases, he should again take up the party’s reins,” Mr. Sanaullah said and added the party would be re-organised under his (Nawaz’s) leadership.

Mr. Sanaullah’s announcement comes amidst internal tensions within the ruling party in Punjab and at the federal level, The Express Tribune newspaper said.

Several prominent figures within the party, including Mr. Sanaullah, portfolio-less Federal Minister Javed Latif, Senator Javed Abbasi, and former Senator Asif Saeed Kirmani, have publicly criticised the leadership.

Their remarks have ranged from questioning cabinet formations to expressing disillusionment with the party’s alignment with the establishment, straying from its “vote ko izzat do” (respect the vote) slogan.

The airing of these grievances has tarnished the party’s reputation as a proponent of democracy.

Following his return to Pakistan after a four-year self-exile in London in October last year, Mr. Sharif got a clean chit in mega corruption cases allegedly with the blessings of the powerful military establishment.

He was all set to become prime minister for the fourth time but his party failed to get a clear majority in the National Assembly on its own in the February 8 general elections.

Mr. Nawaz then allowed his younger brother and the incumbent party president Shehbaz Sharif – who is considered the favourite of the military establishment – to lead a six-party coalition government at the Centre.

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.