Pakistan’s ex-PM Nawaz Sharif back from self-exile ahead of elections

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s thrice-elected former prime minister, has returned home after four years of self-exile in the United Kingdom to stand in next year’s elections against his biggest rival, former premier Imran Khan.

The 73-year-old veteran politician arrived by chartered flight to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Saturday, after which he is expected to lead a rally in his hometown, Lahore, where supporters decorated the city with green and yellow party banners, posters and flags.

The military and Khan fell out in 2022, and over the last few months, they have been involved in a bruising showdown, which has afforded Sharif some political space. The military denies that it interferes in politics.

“An evergreen rule about Pakistani politics is that your chances of taking power are always greater when you’re in the good books of the army,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, told Reuters news agency.

“Over his long political career, Sharif’s relationship with the military brass has blown hot and cold. It’s now in a relatively cordial phase, and he stands to benefit politically.”

Pakistan is currently being led by a caretaker government in the run-up to January’s election.