Nawaz set to return on Oct 29 to face graft cases

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to return to the country on Oct 29 and face graft cases the National Accountability Bureau has brought against him, a private media outlet reported on Friday.

According to the outlet, the former prime minister will land in Lahore on Oct 29 and proceed to the Capital city on Nov 2 ahead of his hearing in a graft reference by an accountability court on Nov 3.

This is the fourth time that Nawaz’s plan to return to Pakistan from London – where his ailing wife Begum Kulsoom Nawaz is undergoing treatment – has changed.

Earlier on Oct 23, the former prime minister left London to appear before the accountability court on October 26. He had a stopover in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah along with his mother. In the meantime, Nawaz’s wife was hospitalised again so he had to go back to London.

Sources said Sharif during his brief stopover in Riyadh met with his Saudi friends to win their support in the wake of challenges he had been facing at home since his disqualification.

On Thursday, the accountability court issued bailable warrants for his arrest in two references after he failed to make an appearance. It had dismissed his application seeking exemption from personal appearance before the court.

Sharif and his sons – Hussain and Hassan – have been named in three corruption references, while his daughter Maryam and her husband retired Captain Safdar have been named in single graft reference related to the family’s London flats.