PML-N Nawaz Sharif has told his party’s leader that he would return to Pakistan next month, in October, according to media reports.

The former prime minister, who still faces jail, would come home after Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial’s retirement. Bandial will hang it up on September 16.

Nawaz Sharif was speaking at a meeting of party leaders in London where the former prime minister has been living since 2019. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and former finance minister Ishaq Dar are also in the city.

It merits here to mention that the party leaders have given many dates for the arrival of Sharif in the past.

In an interview with Geo News last month, Shehbaz said that Nawaz would return to Pakistan next month.

When Shehbaz was asked about the possibility of the caretaker government “creating any issues” for Nawaz upon his return, the PM replied: “He will face the law.”

“Nawaz Sharif is waiting for September 16. He thinks he will not get justice while Umar Ata Bandial is the Chief Justice of Pakistan. However, I think he will not return even after September 16, as he sees no favourable conditions. He wants the judiciary and the establishment to apologise to him,” anchorperson Javed Chaudhry told Shaukat Piracha on Rubaroo last month.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court, would be Bandial’s successor.

The appointment will come into effect on September 17 when the CJP Bandial will retire, according to a statement from the President’s House.

CJP Bandial will reach the age of retirement on September 16 under Article 179 of the Constitution, it added.