LAHORE: PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif will return to country on Thursday (tomorrow).

However, he has not yet decided to appear before the National Accountability Bureau in connection with the Punjab Saaf Pani Company scam on June 25.

“Shahbaz Sharif is returning home from London on June 21 after seeing his ailing sister-in-law Begum Kulsoom Nawaz,” a PML-N spokesperson said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Mr Sharif had gone to London on Saturday last after the condition of Begum Kulsoom deteriorated. Begum Kulsoom has been on ventilator for a week following a cardiac arrest.

The spokesperson did not confirm whether Shahbaz Sharif would appear before NAB, Lahore, on June 25. Mr Sharif on June 4 chose not to appear before NAB’s three-member combined investigation team to respond to queries about illegalities in the Saaf Pani project. For failing to appear before NAB, it had re-summoned him on June 25.

Earlier, Mr Sharif had appeared before NAB to answer questions about alleged misuse of authority in the award of a contract worth Rs14 billion in the Ashiyana housing scheme, and recorded his statement.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz Sharif has directed the party’s manifesto committee to focus on water scarcity and climate change.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018