Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif has applied for political asylum in the United Kingdom (UK), a private media outlet reported on Wednesday night.
According to BOL News, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, who is facing multiple National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases of corruption and misuse of power as Punjab chief minister, has applied for political refuge.
Soon after the report was aired, other media outlets made similar claims as another popular channel explained why one seeks humanitarian protection outside his or her home country.
Social media was abuzz with conflicting reports when Shehbaz’s spokesperson Attaullah Tarar took to Twitter to clarify the situation.
Rubbishing the claims, Tarar said Shehbaz will be returning to Pakistan before the budget session for the fiscal year 2019-20 in the National Assembly and Senate on May 24.
He said that the younger Sharif had an appointment with a cancer specialist on May 8 in London and another one on May 14. “It is likely that he may be suggested a few more tests after which he will be returning to Pakistan,” he said.
Earlier, Shehbaz himself had also said he would be back in Pakistan in a matter of days.
“I have a few medical check-ups to attend to in the next few days and I will be returning to Pakistan after that. It could be much sooner than the budget session,” he had told a media outlet earlier this month.
Shehbaz, a cancer patient, has been in London for over three weeks now. He has reportedly undergone various tests as part of his medical check-ups, especially for the pain he had developed while in NAB custody.
