ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Nawaz Sharif, the fugitive former prime minister of Pakistan, has returned to the South Asian nation after nearly four years in self-exile, stirring up the country’s already fraught political scene as it awaits what is expected to be a tumultuous national election.
Sharif, who has served as Pakistan’s prime minister three times and was once ousted in a military coup, landed at Islamabad airport on Saturday, according to airport officials.
Sharif was the former head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or the PML-N, one of two dynastic parties that have traditionally dominated the country’s politics.
He was disqualified from holding office in a Supreme Court ruling concerning corruption allegations in 2017.
The following year he was sentenced to seven years’ prison for corruption, charges he denied, but the sentence was suspended on medical grounds, allowing him to travel overseas for treatment on the condition that he return within four weeks – a requirement he then flouted.
His arrival back in Pakistan comes just days after an Islamabad court granted him protective bail, meaning he cannot be arrested before appearing in court.
The development raises the stakes ahead of what is already shaping up to be a fraught election.
The South Asian nation has been in a state of political turmoil since the ouster of another prime minister, Imran Khan, a former rival of Sharif.
Sharif, too, previously blamed his downfall on the military, which has ruled Pakistan for extended periods since its independence in 1947 and retains significant influence.
Before the 2017 ruling that ended his third spell in power he had been ousted in a coup, in 1999, and removed as prime minister by a military-backed president in 1993.
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