Nawaz's date of return to be announced after polls schedule: minister.

LAHORE -- Federal Minister Mian Javed Latif says PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif will announce the date of his return to the country after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) releases the election schedule for the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, which were dissolved last week.

Mr Latif recently returned from London after meeting the former prime minister, told the media at Model Town here on Sunday that 'the PML-N's supreme leader will announce the date of his homecoming soon after the ECP gives the polling schedule for Punjab and KP assemblies.'

Mr Sharif, the longest-serving prime minister, was serving a prison sentence in a corruption case when he went abroad on a court order in November 2019 to seek treatment for his illness.

The minister without portfolio asserted that the country would move forward only if the five characters, who had played a role in 2017 in the ouster of Mr Sharif (through the nefarious Panama case), were brought to justice. 'Those who plundered the country between 2017 and Nov 23, 2022, need to be brought to the dock.'

He stated that exemplary punishment for those behind his character assassination would restore Nawaz Sharif's faith (in the state's institutions).

He claimed that despite numerous times giving up his political career for the good of the nation, Nawaz Sharif's sacrifices were always in vain.

Referring to the ongoing economic meltdown of the country, he said: 'We are going into elections amid innumerable crises, including the financial challenges facing the country.'

He said that PML-N Senior Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, who has been appointed as the chief organiser of the party, would return to the country on Jan 28.

The minister said that the coalition government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was trying to improve the economy and streamline the system for better governance. He said that the PML-N was taking tough decisions in the larger national interest at the cost of its own politics.

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