Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addresses to his supporters throughout a welcoming rally in Lahore, Pakistan on 21 October, 2023.- AP
Calling Nawaz Sharif, a ‘fugitive’, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has hit out on the reception rolled out to the previous prime minister upon return from a four-year-long self-imposed exile.
“A criminal and fugitive was given the status of state guest,” stated PTI spokesperson Shoaib Shaheen.
Shaheen was referring to the suspension of arrest warrants in opposition to Sharif a day earlier than his return on Saturday and the following reception.
The three-time prime minister was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in December 2018 over corruption costs. He, nonetheless, was launched on medical bail in October 2019 and left Pakistan weeks later the pretext of remedy. He remained in London all this whereas and at last returned on Saturday.
In a show of power, Nawaz addressed a large rally in Lahore the very first thing upon return.
Nawaz, who was ousted in the course of the tenure of Prime Minister Imran Khan, introduced on the Lahore rally he didn’t “wish to take revenge.”
The PTI spokesperson additionally claimed that the federal government led by Nawaz’s youthful brother Shehbaz Sharif, which ran from mid-20222 to August this 12 months, gave Pakistan the very best inflation within the final 16 months.
He additionally highlighted Nawaz’s biometric verification at Islamabad airport, which he stated made folks witness “how a criminal was granted bail.”
Motion on PTI
Whereas Nawaz was addressing a large gathering in Lahore, a PTI nook assembly within the metropolis was raided by the police. Shaheen slammed the police for raiding the residences of PTI supporters and violating their privateness as effectively.
He claimed that if Imran Khan — who was ousted from energy by way of a parliamentary vote in April 2022 — was allowed to carry a rally he would draw a much bigger mass help than Nawaz.