Imran Khan’s government refused to renew Nawaz Sharif’s passport
Islamabad:
The new government of Pakistan has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to renew the passports of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. This was said in a news on Wednesday. After Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif became the new Prime Minister of the country, discussions have started in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regarding Nawaz’s return from London. Geo TV quoted sources as saying that the Pakistani High Commission in London has also been directed to start work on renewal of passports of PML-N leaders.
The previous Imran Khan-led government had filed several corruption cases against the 72-year-old PML-N president Nawaz Sharif. Sharif had to step down on the orders of the Supreme Court in July 2017 after being named in the Panama Papers case.
Nawaz Sharif went to London in 2019 after getting permission from the Lahore High Court to travel abroad for four weeks for treatment. He had given an affidavit to the Lahore High Court to return to Pakistan in four weeks or as soon as he was declared fit for travel by doctors to face the legal process.
Imran Khan’s government had refused to renew Nawaz Sharif’s passport, which expired in February last year. But the then Home Minister Sheikh Rashid had said that if the PML-N president wanted to come back, a special certificate could be issued to him.
Nawaz Sharif was granted bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving a seven-year jail term in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail. The court had declared him a fugitive criminal in the Toshakhana case.
