Former Pakistan Prime Minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is hoping to contest the general elections if his legal problems are resolved in the next two months, reports say.
Sharif's party leader from Punjab, Rana Sanaullaha, reportedly said that the PML-N chief would not wait for by-polls to secure his seat in the National Assembly of Pakistan. He also hoped that the cases against Nawaz Sharif would be decided before the 8 February elections.
According to reports, there have been speculations in political circle of Pakistan that if Sharif, who has returned to the country few weeks ago after four years of self exile from the UK, failed to get a clean chit from the courts by the election date, he may contest bypolls and not the general elections.
To a question if the party was asking Nawaz Sharif to become the president of PML-N, Sanaullah was quoted in reports as saying, “Shehbaz Sharif will remain the president, and the elder Sharif will continue to play his role in the current position.”
Nawaz Sharif was indicted in corruption cases in 2018 and was handed a 10-year sentence. He then fled the country after the Imran Khan-led government allowed him to travel abroad on medical grounds the following year. As he has come back, his convictions remain in force.