Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to his country on Friday to face jail and win support of the masses against his tribulation.
"We have decided to return on Friday (July 13)," Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz announced late on Saturday.
The three-time former prime minister and his daughter are currently in London, where the former prime minister's wife is undergoing cancer treatment.
A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court handed Sharif a 10-year jail term on Friday for assets it said Sharif would not have been able to afford with his income, such as luxury flats in London. Sharif's daughter was also sentenced to jail for seven years.
"Workers from all across the country will reach the airport to welcome their leader," said Mushahidullah Khan, a senator with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party.
Khan said that Sharif would land in Islamabad and plans an appeal against the court decision.
NAB teams are expected to be waiting at the airport to arrest both father and daughter as soon as they land, either in Lahore or Islamabad.
"We have made arrangements for the arrest of Sharif and his daughter at Lahore and Islamabad airports to implement court orders," NAB spokesman Bilal Punnu told dpa on Sunday. They would be shifted to jail the same day, he said.
Sharif was forced to step down as prime minister in July 2017. His latest sentencing, just weeks ahead of July 25 national elections, has reinforced concerns that the military is colluding with the judiciary to prevent his party from seeking another term.
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