'Coward fugitive returning under judicial asylum': Imran Khan's party on Nawaz Sharif's return

Islamabad: Calling former premier Nawaz Sharif a "national criminal", his immediate successor Imran Khan's party on Saturday said the state has buried shame, modesty, law and justice with its own hands by paving the way for the "coward fugitive" to return home under "judicial asylum".

Sharif, 73, returned home on a special flight from Dubai, ending a four-year self-imposed exile in the UK, to head his party and try to secure a record fourth term in the general elections expected to be held in January.

Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) reacted strongly to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo's return to the country, saying the "coward fugitive is returning under judicial asylum".

In a statement on Saturday, a PTI spokesperson said, "State has buried shame, modesty, law and justice with its own hands to pave the way for national criminal's return to the country from London."

Ahead of Sharif's arrival, his legal team approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which on Thursday granted him a protective bail until October 24 in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption cases. Also, an anti-corruption court in Pakistan suspended his arrest warrant in the Toshakhana vehicles case.

Sharif has been prime minister three times but was ousted in 2017 and given a lifetime disqualification from politics after being convicted of corruption.

Referring to the ouster of the Imran Khan-led government in April 2022, the PTI spokesperson said after the regime change conspiracy, the state elements after ridiculing the Constitution and democracy "tied the country and the nation in the chains of dictatorship and thrown it to the corrupt wolves".

The statement further said that incarcerated PTI chairman Khan launched a political struggle against the nexus between the criminals and the state 27 years ago.

It said that the nation is standing against thieves, mafia and plunderers under the leadership of Khan.

“The nation is ready to ‘welcome’ its criminal who has been adopted by the state,” the PTI spokesperson said, adding that the people will hold accountable the criminals who have robbed the nation from generation to generation.

The statement also reiterated the demand that an immediate holding of transparent, free and fair elections can steer the country out of crisis.