PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would spend the last days of Ramazan in Saudi Arabia, sources told Aaj News, prompting speculation about his return to Pakistan.

The former prime minister would leave for Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah on an invitation of the Saudi ruler, they said. Sharif would be the royal guest in the country, they added.

Sharif left for London on November 19, 2019, after he was released by the Islamabad High Court on bail from a seven-year sentence for corruption. His bail was approved on medical grounds for eight weeks in the Al Azizia case.

He was diagnosed with an immune system disorder. The 70-year-old PML-N supremo had got bail in two corruption cases and is facing another reference by the National Accountability Bureau.

His departure had come after deliberation and undertaking by his brother and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that stated he would “ensure the return of his brother within four weeks or on certification by doctors that he has regained his health and is fit to return back to Pakistan”.

The report of Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia comes amidst the ongoing judicial crisis in Pakistan and claims by the PML-N that their supremo would “soon” return home to lead the election campaign.

Maryam Nawaz, his daughter, is leading the drive as the country is expected to go into elections this year. Many of the party leaders have claimed that Sharif’s presence here would give a boost to the campaign of the party, which faces tough competition from the archrival PTI.

Imran Khan-led government had made attempts to bring Sharif back to the country to face cases. A plan was also under way to sign an extradition treaty with the United Kingdom government, where the ousted prime minister was residing.

Many PTI leaders have admitted in interviews that they have been unable to make their archrivals accountable for their alleged corruption–a promise they made with their voters before the 2018 elections.

When the PTI was in power, Sharif came to the limelight with his onslaught on the army whom he accused of ousting from the office in the Panama case. He also blames the former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib for giving a verdict against him to bring Imran Khan to power.

The Supreme Court disqualified Sharif on July 28, 2017 from holding public office in a decision on the Panama Papers case. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who had headed the apex court’s implementation bench following its April 20 order on the Panama Papers case, announced that the larger bench had unanimously deemed Sharif unfit for holding office and would also order an accountability court to open references against him and his family, and other respondents.

Then Sharif was removed as PML-N head after a three-member Supreme Court bench led by the then by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said that an individual disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution cannot serve as head of a political party.

The verdict was in reply to as many as 17 petitions challenging the Elections Act 2017, which had been bulldozed through Parliament last year to pave the way for Sharif’s return to the PML-N’s helm as party president.

“Just for a man you are giving such decisions and you have no care for… did you bother to take suo motu on what Justice Shaukat Siddiqui said and former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said that injustice was made with Nawaz Sharif and a wrong decision was given for him,” Sharif said at a press conference in London on March 31.

He was speaking on the Supreme Court’s proceedings into the PTI’s petition challenging the ECP’s decision to postpone the elections to the Punjab Assembly from April 30 to October 8.

“This is a national issue,” he had said.