Lahore: Pakistan’s district administration has given permission to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party to hold a rally on October 21 at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan where former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will address supporters on his return to the country from London after four years.
The 73-year-old three-time prime minister, who will end his self-imposed exile in the UK, is expected to lead his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party in the general elections likely to be held in January next year.
Sharif, who has been in London since 2019, left for London in the middle of his seven-year jail term on medical grounds. In the four years that transpired, Nawaz was declared a proclaimed offender in the Al Azizia and Avenfield graft cases for his continuous absence from proceedings.
The district administration of Lahore has given permission to PML-N to hold the rally, the Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday.
“No speeches against constitutional offices/armed forces/judiciary shall be uttered,” the district administration of Lahore said, adding that any show of fire and use of “objectionable slogans” would be prohibited.
Last month, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that his elder brother was returning to the country on October 21. Subsequently, the PML-N declared that Nawaz was ready to face “all kinds of circumstances” upon his return from London.
The elder Sharif is currently in Saudi Arabia and he will leave for Pakistan via Dubai on October 21 and address a rally at Minar-i-Pakistan. His legal team is likely to apply for his protective bail next week, the report said.
Ahead of Nawaz’s return, the PML-N is preparing for what it calls a “historic welcome” for the party supremo. Shehbaz has addressed several rallies in recent days and held meetings with traders, drumming up support for the Minar-e-Pakistan event.
The PML-N considers the Lahore power show on Nawaz’s homecoming as the most important event for the party.
In a letter addressed to PML-N spokesperson Bilal Yaseen, dated October 14, the deputy commissioner of Lahore said that the permission at the proposed site was issued after the submission of an undertaking by the organiser that in case of an untoward incident, they would take full responsibility.
“District administration and district police propose to issue NOC (non-objection certificate) for holding of public gathering/jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan Lahore,” it stated.
The letter, however, stated that the permission was granted on some conditions that included ensuring emergency exits and coordination with police.
Earlier, the Lahore deputy commissioner confirmed to Dawn that the PML-N had applied for the rally and the administration was in the process of granting a NOC.
Meanwhile, the district administration held a meeting of its district intelligence committee on Saturday and reviewed the law and order situation before granting permission for the meeting.
Sharif stepped down as the prime minister in 2017 after he was disqualified for life from holding public office by the Supreme Court for not declaring a receivable salary. He has been living in London since 2019 after the LHC granted him four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment.
He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on “medical grounds”.
In 2020, an accountability court declared him a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicles case. He is also accused of obtaining luxury cars from the treasury house by paying just 15 per cent of the price of these vehicles.
He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018.
Meanwhile, senior Pakistan Peoples Party leaders have started questioning the understanding’ they claim he has reached with the quarters concerned to facilitate his hassle-free’ return.
After National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s mentioning of “some understanding between the Sharifs and the quarters concerned” regarding the former premier’s return on October 21, another senior PPP leader from Punjab has lodged a protest over plans to give official protocol’ to a convict upon his arrival, saying he must complete his jail term before thinking of contesting the election.
“There has been no justification to give official protocol to convict Nawaz Sharif on his return to Pakistan. If he gets clean chit from courts, then this facility should also be given to others,” PPP’s Punjab general secretary Hasan Murtaza told a press conference on Saturday.
Hasan Murtaza said that Nawaz Sharif had a “huge burden of cases” on his shoulders and he was also a convict.
Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has claimed that Sharif’s homecoming was a result of a “covert deal,” saying it was a big test for the country’s judiciary.
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