Nawaz Sharif to lead PML-N's election campaign starting Nov 10

Pakistan´s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif waves to his supporters gathered at Minar-e-Pakistan during an event held to welcome him in Lahore on October 21, 2023. — AFP

LAHORE: Three-time former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will lead his party's election campaign starting November 10 ahead of upcoming general elections.

The former premier returned to Pakistan on October 21 — as he left for London in November 2019 for medical treatment following the Lahore High Court's approval — after a four-year self-imposed exile in a grand welcome organised by the party at Lahore's Minar-e-Pakistan.

The three-time former prime minister will oversee the party's parliamentary board for distribution of tickets and will also lead the party's election campaign via his countrywide tours, sources told Geo News.

"We will strengthen judicial institutions if we come into power," the PML-N supremo said, according to sources, while chairing his party's in-person meeting for the first time in four years at his Jati Umra residence today.

Separately, speaking to the media PML-N's General Secretary Ashan Iqbal said: "It is our wish that Nawaz Sharif becomes the country's next prime minister".

"Nawaz Sharif was ousted from electoral politics via an orchestrated conspiracy and false cases," he added.

Earlier, Geo News reported that the PML-N meeting was to mull over the current political situation, general elections, and other issues in the Jati Umra meeting.

The huddle was also to discuss the launching of the party's manifesto ahead of the upcoming general elections.

It is pertinent to know that the PML-N's supremo has received flak from political opponents most notably Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for receiving allegedly "undue relief" in relation to various legal cases.

The former prime minister, since his return, has had his pleas restored by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against accountability courts' conviction verdicts in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases.

The ousted premier was handed an accumulative 18-year jail term in the aforementioned cases.

Last week, the Punjab government also suspended Nawaz's conviction in the Al-Azizia reference.