LAHORE: A unanimous decision has been taken for the return of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, with the date of the three-time former prime minister’s return to Pakistan to be announced from London.

Sources said that the PML-N will use the Islamabad High Court’s decision to overturn the convictions awarded by an accountablity court to Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain Safdar retired as precedent to seek the annulment of Nawaz’s conviction.

Nawaz was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison and slapped a fine of £8 million (Rs1.3 billion) in the Avenfield properties reference on on July 6, 2018 in an assets beyond means case.

Accountability Court-I Judge Mohammad Bashir had delivered the verdict which included an eight-year sentence for Nawaz’s daughter Maryam and a one-year sentence to Maryam’s husband Capt Safdar retired.

Maryam and Safdar had been on bail since September 19, 2018, when the IHC suspended their conviction. It was overturned in September this year.

It warrants mentioned that the IHC dismissed dismissed the Nawaz’s appeals challenging his sentences in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references last year. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq - now the chief justice of the IHC, and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani dismissed the pleas because of Nawaz’s status as a proclaimed offender.