Pakistan’s political landscape is buzzing with controversy as former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has returned to the country after a 4-year self-imposed exile in London.
Sharif, the leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has set his sights on a political comeback, eyeing the upcoming general elections expected to be held in the last week of January next year. However, his return has not been without its share of drama and accusations.
The cornered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has reacted strongly to Sharif’s return, branding him a “coward fugitive seeking refuge under judicial asylum”.
In a statement released on Saturday, a PTI spokesperson lamented the perceived erosion of justice, asserting that the state had “buried shame, modesty, law, and justice with its own hands” to facilitate the return of the “national criminal” from London.
Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, was ousted in 2017 and given a lifetime disqualification from politics due to his conviction for not declaring a receivable salary. His smooth return to Pakistan was ensured after he secured relief from both the Islamabad High Court and an accountability court, avoiding immediate arrest upon landing.
According to the spokesperson, state elements, after ridiculing the Constitution and democracy, had “tied the country and the nation in the chains of dictatorship and thrown it to the corrupt wolves.”
The PTI spokesperson also recalled a regime change conspiracy to send Imran Khan-led government home.
The PTI claimed the nation stood united against corruption, with Khan at the helm of this anti-corruption drive.
“The nation is ready to ‘welcome’ its criminal who has been ‘adopted’ by the state,” the PTI spokesperson declared, adding that the people are prepared to hold accountable those who have allegedly plundered the nation across generations.
