Daily Times

The establishment has accepted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif’s narrative and backed off from politics, a top party leader said Wednesday.

In a news conference, PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said that Nawaz’s narrative has been accepted and the establishment announced openly that it would not interfere in politics any more.

“The establishment and the judiciary will have to cooperate to take the country’s economy forward,” the former planning minister told reporters.

Iqbal added that the country could not bear another experiment, claiming that the cure of all of Pakistan’s ills is if an experienced politician like Nawaz is elected back into power. The senior party leader went on to say that it is up to all stakeholders to ensure that they operate within their constitutional parameters, adding that all state institutions are an asset of Pakistan.

The PML-N’s narrative of holding powerful people – that it claims were behind Nawaz’s ouster in 2017 – accountable has toned down, and now the party has shifted its focus towards reshaping the country’s crumbling economy. With elections set to take place in January end, the PML-N has kick-started its election campaign and a key driving force behind it is the scheduled return of Nawaz – who has been living in self-exile in London since 2019.

The PML-N supremo – who was disqualified in the Panama Papers case in 2017 – is set to land in Lahore on October 21 and expected to address a rally at Minar-e-Pakistan and later face courts for his pending cases.

In an address to a rally later in the day, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif reassured that Nawaz is coming back to Pakistan not to seek revenge but to “rescue” the country from the ongoing crisis.

Shehbaz reiterated his brother’s homecoming on October 21 and said that Nawaz is returning to serve the people of Pakistan and recommence the journey towards prosperity once again.