Daily Times

A high-level Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) meeting chaired by party president Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday decided that former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, should land in Lahore upon return to Pakistan.

“Shehbaz chaired a high-level party meeting in Model Town to finalise a future course of action in light of the party supremo’s return to the country, expected next week,” sources said.

“The meeting discussed whether Nawaz and Maryam should land in Islamabad or Lahore and concluded that the father-daughter duo should arrive at the provincial capital,” sources said.

Former PM Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were sentenced on Friday to 10 and seven years in prison and slapped £8 million and £ 2 million fines, respectively, in relation to the Avenfield properties reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau last year.

Following the verdict, the father-daughter duo vowed to return to Pakistan on July 13 and challenge the verdict against them in the high court.

The meeting chaired by former chief minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif was attended by top party leaders, including former National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq, former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, former interior and development minister Ahsan Iqbal and Shehbaz’s son Hamza Shehbaz, sources said.

According to sources, the PML-N president decided to direct the party’s ticket holders to lead groups of supporters to welcome the party supremo when he returns to the country.

In case party supporters are restrained by the caretaker government from proceeding to the airport to welcome their leader, sources said an alternative plan of action will also be finalised.

Published in Daily Times, July 9^th 2018.