Will Nawaz stay in London till end of Imran govt?

Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif is not going to accompany the dead body of his mother Shamim Akhtar, who died last week, giving rise to speculations that the ex-PM will not come back till the end of the incumbent government.

His decision of staying in London couple with a tweet by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz — wherein she asked her father to stay in London because the government was hell-bent on exacting revenge — has prompted people to ask if this was his plan all along.

In a tweet following the death of her grandmother, Maryam had said: “I have requested Mian sahab not to come back [to Pakistan] at all. These are tyrants, these are the people hellbent on exacting revenge, and no humanity is expected from them.” Maryam also said that the government didn’t inform her of her grandmother’s death while she was attending a rally in Peshawar.

Nawaz has been living in London since November last year when he was released on conditional medical bail for his treatment abroad. Dar, on the other hand, has taken self-exile in the United Kingdom after his removal from the post of Finance Minister in 2017 following the emergence of allegations of accumulation of assets beyond means against him. Both of them are wanted back home in multiple cases of graft and abuse of power

Political analysts said the remarks by the PML-N vice president were devoid of logic, as Maryam couldn’t hold the government responsible in this case. “It is however her right to advise her father,” analyst Irshad Bhatti said in a Geo News show. According to Bhatti, the elder Sharif’s decision not to return was a “pre-planned” strategy by the PML-N to pressurise the government and seek reprieve.

Similar views were shared by analysts Hassan Nisar, Dr Rasul Baksh Rais, and Muneeb Farooq.

Farooq and Dr Rais said the former prime minister will not be coming back to Pakistan during the government of Imran Khan, and a recent statement by Maryam Nawaz, asking him to stay in London indefinitely, has proved it. Dr Rais said the decision that Nawaz will not return during the PTI government tenure was taken a long time ago and the statement made by Maryam was an attempt at political damage control.

Shamim Begum, the Sharif family matriarch, breathed her last in London on Sunday due to a chest infection at the age of 89. Her body will be moved to Pakistan within next few days. Her grandsons, Hassan and Hussain, will also not accompany her dead body to Pakistan.