ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday questioned about the veracity of some speculations doing the rounds that some way was being paved to again bring former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif into power. “Some rumours are circulating that criminal conviction of former PM Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case would be reversed,” PM Imran Khan was quoted as saying this while addressing a meeting of his party’s spokespersons. The remarks of PM came hours after PML-N leader and former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in a statement claimed that former premier Nawaz Sharif, who has been living in London since November 2019 on grounds of his medical treatment, would soon return to the country.

According to official party sources, PM Imran Khan showed his surprise how it was possible that conviction of a person could be reversed. He said that the PML-N leader misappropriated public money and laundered it abroad. He further said that ex-PM’s name surfaced in Panama Papers scandal and the apex court disqualified him to become a member of the Parliament.

The official sources quoted PM Khan as saying that Sharif even failed to provide money trail with regard to owning assets beyond known sources. He questioned how a convicted person can become country’s premier for the fourth time after reversal of his conviction. He said that the doors of jails should be opened if the conviction of Sharif has to be reversed once and for all.

In 2018, an accountability court of Islamabad had sentenced former premier Nawaz Sharif to 10 years and seven years in prison in Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption references respectively.

The meeting also discussed the defeat of PTI candidates in the recent first phase of local government election held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). KP government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif presented the data of total votes cast in the election and informed the participants that PTI was still popular party in the province according to the votes cast in favour of its candidates. H said that the official results of the election are still awaited from Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

According to official sources, the PM also tasked his party spokespersons with highlighting the alleged corruption of Nawaz Sharif at all levels.