ISLAMABAD/LONDON - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif landed back in the federal capital today, and will appear before the accountability court tomorrow.
As PIA flight PK-786 landed at 8:30am, large number of party workers and leaders including Asif Kirmani, Pervaiz Rasheed and MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhary turned up to receive him.
After the arrival, he was escorted to Punjab House by ASF where he is expected to head a party meeting today.
Furthermore, ten-member team of National Accountability Bureau was at the Islamabad airport to serve bailable arrest warrants on Nawaz.
The accountability court had issued the warrants on October 26 when the ex-PM skipped the hearing in the corruption references against him without taking court’s permission.
A legal expert said that since Nawaz willingly came back to attend the court, the whole exercise would just be confined to paperwork and no arrest was expected.
Sources informed The Nation the NAB officials served court warrants on the ousted premier and take an undertaking from him to ensure his presence in the court tomorrow (Nov 3).
A high drama was witnessed at the airport lounge on arrival of Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her husband Muhammad Safdar, who was arrested by the NAB officials from among a crowd of rowdy PML-N supporters, and presented in the court next day.
Maryam and Safdar are indicted in one of the three graft cases filed against Nawaz Sharif, under the July 28 judgment of the Supreme Court in Panama leaks case.
On previous date of hearing, the judge of Accountability Court Islamabad had said that from Nov 3, he would hear the corruption references against Sharif family on a daily basis.
Some legal experts said the court would likely place some bar on Nawaz Sharif’s foreign travel or link it with the court’s permission, as was done in the case of Safdar.
Sources in the party informed The Nation that former prime minister would hold meetings with senior party leaders as well as the leaders of other political parties to work out some joint strategy for his stated agenda of establishing civilian supremacy in the country.
Earlier on Wednesday, NAB wrote a letter to Airport Security Force of the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, demanding access to Nawaz Sharif upon his arrival.
Citing the court order, it said in the letter that the “accused was abroad and reportedly, is arriving in Pakistan on 2nd November at Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad”.
“It is, therefore, requested that officers/officials of this bureau as per list attached along with vehicles may be allowed access to flight No. PK 786 for compliance of the orders of the learned court,” the letter further read.
In a media talk at his Mayfair residence in London on Wednesday, the disqualified premier complained that there were contradictions in the ‘system of Pakistan’.
Nawaz Sharif looked disoriented and distressed as he responded to some of the questions thrown at him in the brief media interaction in London when he stepped out of his apartment. He said he was not afraid of prison as this was not the first time he was facing such a scenario.
The ousted premier questioned the toppling of his government in 1999, claiming that the action taken against him by Pervez Musharraf had no legal backing.
“A premier is branded a ‘hijacker’ in a matter of seconds,” he complained.
He urged the people to pray for speedy recovery of his wife, Kalsoom Nawaz, who underwent second chemotherapy in London earlier this week.
She was diagnosed with lymph nodes cancer early September and was flown to London ahead of NA-120 by-elections.
Kalsoom won the by-polls beating Dr Yasmin Rashid of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf among other candidates by a dependable margin.