Nawaz Sharif to be Pakistan PM if PML-N returns to power, says Premier Shehbaz Sharif

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will be the next premier of the country if the party returns to power in the next general election.

Speaking on the Geo News programme on Sunday, Shehbaz said the three-time former prime minister who has been living in self-imposed exile in London since 2019 will return to the country in the next few weeks.

The premier said his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, 73, would face the law upon his return to Pakistan, adding that he was sent abroad on medical grounds on the basis of a medical report prepared on the directives of former prime minister Imran Khan.

Nawaz Sharif was disqualified in 2017 by the Supreme Court. In 2018, he became ineligible to hold public office for life after a Supreme Court verdict in the Panama Papers case.

Before his departure to London on a four-week bail by the Lahore High Court on medical grounds, Nawaz Sharif was serving a seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case.

Shehbaz Sharif said that a notification of the dissolution of the National Assembly will be sent to President Arif Alvi a few days ahead of the completion of the tenure at 12 midnight on August 12.

Shehbaz Sharif, also the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party president maintained that the PML-N would try to make seat adjustments with allied parties in the general elections, adding that the party would field its candidates in the constituencies where they could not reach a consensus.

He said the caretaker set-up would be agreed upon after consultation with allied parties, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, and the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz.