On June 16, 2023, the current prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, urged the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) chief Nawaz Sharif to come back and lead the election campaign in Pakistan, as well as become the prime minister of the country for the fourth time, reported by Geo News.
While addressing the central general council meeting of the party, PML-N Sharif said that he is waiting for his brother to return to Pakistan and then hold the party meeting so he could hand over the PML-N president back to them.
It is worth mentioning that since November 2019, Nawaz Sharif has been in self-imposed exile in London for health reasons. The election commission sword has been hanging, which is why this meeting was held,” the Pakistani Prime Minister said.
According to Geo-News, Premier Shehbaz was given the PML-N presidency after his predecessor Nawaz Sharif, the three-time prime minister, was disqualified by the Supreme Court and barred from holding any party position or post.
He also mentioned that the need of the hour or the PML-N is talented and young leadership and commended Maryam for her hard work. “You will see that the map of politics will change once Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan,” he said.
The statement comes weeks after Arif Alvi, the president of Pakistan, signed the Supreme Court Reviews of Judgements and Order Acts in 2023, clearing the first step for Nawaz Sharif to exercise the right of appeal against their lifetime disqualifications within 60 days.
Under this new law, now an appeal can be filed against the court decisions in cases under Article 184(3). The law is valid for past verdicts as well, Samaa News said.
The Pakistan Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz Sharif due to his involvement in the Panama Papers case on July 28, 2017. The apex court has also banned him from holding any public office for life for hiding his unpaid salary from his son in the Panama Case.
A year after, the court after announcing the verdict on petitions challenging the Elections Act 2017, saying that a person disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 cannot serve as a head of the political party.
Nawaz Sharif’s name never appears in the Panama Papers. Three of his children, Maryam Nawaz, Hasan Nawaz, and Hussain Nawaz Sharif, were determined to have purchased luxury properties in London using offshore holdings. His children mentioned that the companies were set up with legally obtained money, but the critics claim otherwise.
According to reports from the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), who were the first ones to release the Panama Papers in early 2016, after a lengthy investigation, Sharif’s three children headed companies that owned four luxury flats in London’s Park Lane Neighbourhood
His daughter, Maryam, who once was seen as Nawaz’s political successor, was listed as the owner of two British Virgin Islands-based shell companies Nielsen Enterprises and Nescoll Limited were set up in the early 1990s just after Sharif’s term ended. She was underage at that time.
Maryam and Hasan Nawaz signed paperwork in 2007 that was a part of the transactions in which Deutsche Bank Geneva lent up to 13.8 million to the companies with their London properties as collaterals. Hasan Nawaz Sharif was listed as the director of another British Virgin Islands company called Hangon Property Holdings Limited.
He was not directly involved in the business transactions but was implicated in the scandal nonetheless. Throughout the hearing, he said that he was involved.
This is not the first time Nawaz Sharif’s reputation has been tainted due to corruption. His first term ended abruptly in 1993 when he was dismissed by the then president Ghulam Ishaq Ali over reports of mismanagement and corruption after his family business suddenly grew.
