A timeline of Nawaz Sharif’s fall from power and return to Pakistan

Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif got disqualified when the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) announced its decision on July 28, 2017 in the Panama Papers case.

After that, Nawaz Sharif and three of his children were referred to an accountability court, which was ordered to file corruption cases against Sharif’s family within six weeks.

In July 2018, the expelled prime minister was imprisoned for 10 years in Avenfield properties corruption case, an assets-beyond-means trial.

Nawaz’s sentence then got extended to one more year for not cooperating with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the same case.

His daughter, PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz, had initially received a seven-year jail sentence in the same case. However, she was subsequently acquitted in September 2022, along with her husband, (retd) Captain Safdar.

In Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case, the PML-N supremo was sentenced to seven years in jail on December 24, 2018. Nawaz Sharif was taken to Adiala jail in this case, and then he got shifted to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail on the very next day. He was also fined Rs1.5 billion and US$25 million in this case.

The former prime minister was released from jail in March 2019. After that, Lahore High Court (LHC) allowed Nawaz Sharif to go to London for treatment for fast depleting platelets levels, and then he left for London in November 2019.

When he didn’t come back to Pakistan for almost a year, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared him a fugitive.

On September 9, 2021, PML-N leader Javed Latif claimed that Nawaz Sharif will come back to Pakistan within the year, but that return didn’t work out.

Latif, a PML-N MNA, was talking to media after visiting NAB’s Joint Investigation Team for a graft inquiry.

On November 12, 2022, a PML-N party insider expressed confidence that Sharif will be back in Pakistan next month in December, but that didn’t happen either.

Once again, on August 15, 2022, Javed Latif claimed that Nawaz Sharif will come back to Pakistan in September, as doctors had allowed him to travel.

“The doctors change their opinion with time. The people are his doctors; the nation has announced its decision that Nawaz Sharif should come back,” Latif added.

In June 2023, one of the well-informed sources within PML-N also claimed that Nawaz Sharif will come back to Pakistan next month, in July 2023.

The former prime minister and PML-N president, Shehbaz Sharif, has confirmed multiple times in the last few months that Nawaz Sharif is coming back on October 21, 2023.

The PML-N supremo left London for Saudi Arabia on October 11 and performed Umrah there. Nawaz Sharif is currently in Dubai and will land in Pakistan on October 21.

Meanwhile, the IHC has approved Nawaz Sharif’s plea on Thursday, providing him with bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases until October 24.