Islamabad: Newly elected Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered an immediate issuance of diplomatic passport to his brother and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, according to sources. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will return to the country after Eid on diplomatic passport, sources said. However, Nawaz Sharif will have to go straight to jail on his return due to a court sentence.
Meanwhile, the jury is still out on whether deposed Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan from London after Eid next month or once he gets a clean bill of health from his doctors or a reprieve from the country’s courts in corruption cases pending against him, according to PML-N officials.
A debate in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has begun on the return of the party supremo and the three-time prime minister Sharif’s expected return after his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif became the new prime minister of the country.
Although PML-N parliamentarian Javed Latif has claimed that Sharif will return to the country after Eid which will be celebrated in the first week of May, the party spokesperson has asserted that nothing is final on Sharif’s comeback till he is declared fit to travel by his doctors.
“Mian Nawaz Sharif will return to the country once his doctors in London declare him fit to travel. Besides, the decision on it will be taken in consultation with the party leadership,” PML-N central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb told PTI on Tuesday.
Several corruption cases had been launched by the government of ex-prime minister Imran Khan against the 72-year-old Sharif since his ouster from office by the Supreme Court in July 2017 in the Panama Papers case.
In November 2019, Sharif left for London after the Lahore High Court granted him four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment.
He had given an undertaking to the Lahore High Court to return to Pakistan, citing his record to face the process of law and justice within four weeks or as soon as he is declared healthy and fit to travel by doctors.
Sharif was also given bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven-year imprisonment in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.
The court has declared him a proclaimed offender (PO) in the Toshakhana case.
