HYDERABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz vice president Nehal Hashmi has rejected all claims about a deal with anyone for the return home of the party’s supremo Nawaz Sharif. “Nawaz Sharif’s deal is with Allah,” he remarked.

He was speaking to journalists at the residence of PML-N leader Khalid Aziz Arain in Latifabad to share details about arrangements for the former premier’s return to Pakistan on October 21, as was finally announced by the party leadership recently.

PML-N Sindh president Shah Mohammad Shah also spoke at the press briefing.

Nehal rejects all claims of ‘deal’ for party supremo’s return home

Hashmi said that “today everyone recalls Nawaz Sharif’s era when the petrol price was Rs65 per litre and Pakistan had been progressing”. Under a conspiracy, Nawaz Sharif was ousted and the journey of development was halted, he claimed, and noted that lawlessness had now gripped the country.

He said that many experiments had been conducted in the country; Pakistan was supposed to progress like other countries.

He said Nawaz Sharif would return home to lead this country on Oct 21.

Hashmi insisted that the return was not under any deal, and argued that had Nawaz Sharif been interested in any deal, his government would not have been toppled. If he would be inclined to a deal, it would be with his people, his country and the Constitution, said Hashmi.

Nawaz Sharif could file an application under Article 426 for protective bail and such bail could be granted to him, he said

He pointed out that cases of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were identical, and pointed out that the latter had been acquitted in the case against her. He said Maryam’s spouse was implicated in the case out of personal vendetta.

Shah Mohammad Shah also said that Nawaz Sharif would return home on October 21 and a caravan from Karachi would leave for Lahore on October 19. He said that this caravan would make a stopover in Sukkur, where people wearing the traditional Ajrak and Sindhi cap would join it after reaching there from other cities and towns of Sindh.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023