Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to bring Nawaz Sharif back from London to serve his prison sentence, and said that he would visit the United Kingdom if necessary to make it happen.
He made these comments in an interview with local media.
The prime minister said that he is ready to visit UK to meet his counterpart Boris Johnson over the Sharif issue.
Sharif, a former three-time premier and the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, has been living in London for nearly a year, after being temporarily released from prison for a duration of eight weeks for medical treatment.
Pakistan has already made official contact with the authorities in London via letter over the aforementioned issue.
The letter was written to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel by Prime Minister Khan’s anti-corruption special adviser, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, on October 5.
Meanwhile, federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz assured the country that Sharif would be in a Pakistani jail by January 15.
“Nawaz Sharif would be in Kot Lakhpat Jail by January 15,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Faraz said that Prime minister Khan is determined to hold the “corrupt gang” accountable.
“They are expert in corruption, and looted the nation’s wealth with impunity,” he claimed.
The minister added that those saying “vote ko izzat do [give respect to vote]” – a slogan used by the PML-N – “gave respect to money” during their years in power.
Faraz also spoke about CCTV footage of Captain Safdar’s arrest from a hotel in Sindh capital Karachi, obtained by the media, saying that the broken door was not seen as claimed by the PML-N.
Safdar is the husband of Maryam Nawaz, Sharif’s daughter.
“As per the footage, Captain Safdar seemed comfortable in police custody,” the minister said. “Their lies have now been exposed.”
The minister maintained that whatever happened in Sindh, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) provincial government was responsible, not the federal authorities.
“We [the federal government] did not arrest Captain Safdar, Sindh police arrested him,” said Faraz.
He said that the opposition parties are not “sincere with each other” and “playing politics”.
The opposition and the federal government have been at loggerheads since the Sindh police’s top brass sought to proceed on leave en masse in protest against the “demoralising and shocking” treatment of the police chief in the events that led to the arrest of PML-N leader Safdar.
Safdar landed in a controversy on Sunday when he raised the PML-N’s slogan of “vote ko izzat do” while standing inside the innermost sanctum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohamed Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum.
The act was decried by many as being disrespectful and in violation of the laws protecting the sanctity of the Quaid-e-Azam’s mazar – a crime which carries a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.
A case was subsequently filed against him and Maryam Nawaz for violating the sanctity of the mazar.
Safdar was subsequently arrested from a hotel early in the morning on Monday and taken to Aziz Bhatti Police Station, where he was kept for hours before being released on bail.
The Sindh government has distanced itself from the registration of the case against the PML-N leader and the early morning arrest.
Prime Minister Khan: ready to meet UK premier Johnson over the Sharif issue.
