Nawaz Sharif will return to Pak next month to face court cases: PM Sharif

Pakistan's outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that his brother and former premier Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan next month to face his pending court cases and lead the party's campaign for the general election.

Nawaz Sharif, 73, has been living in self-imposed exile in the UK since November 2019. He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018.

He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on "medical grounds".

In an interview with Geo News on Thursday, Shehbaz Sharif, 71, said he would travel to London to meet his elder brother Nawaz Sharif as soon as the caretaker government took charge in the country.

Shehbaz Sharif reiterated that his elder brother would be Pakistan's prime minister for the fourth time if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won the next election to be held later this year.

His statement came as the process to appoint caretaker setup formally kicked off with the dissolution of the National Assembly on Wednesday, three days ahead of the mandated period.

Nawaz Sharif will come back to Pakistan next month and will face the law and lead the election campaign, the incumbent prime minister said without giving the exact date of Nawaz Sharif's return.

In 2016, Nawaz Sharif stepped down as the prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him for life for concealing assets.

His appeals against the conviction are currently pending in the relevant courts.