Nawaz's homecoming strategy, elections discussed during London huddle

The much-anticipated meeting between former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and party supremo Nawaz Sharif took place in London's Avenfield House and lasted for two and a half hours.

During the tete-a-tete, the PML-N bigwigs — accompanied by their sons Salman Shehbaz and Hassan Nawaz — had detailed discussions on the country's prevailing political situation and the upcoming general elections.

Another pressing topic discussed in the meeting was Nawaz's return to the country. The older Sharif brother has been in self-imposed exile in London since 2019.

The former PM arrived in London on Sunday on his first visit to the UK after his 16-month-long tenure as prime minister ended this month.

Party sources had earlier shared that Shehbaz along with other important leaders of the party — many of whom are already present in the UK capital — and its legal team would join the Sharif brothers for the meetings.

On August 9, Shehbaz said that his brother will return to Pakistan in September.

"Nawaz Sharif will come back to Pakistan next month and will face the law and lead the election campaign," he told Capital Talk's host Hamid Mir in an interview without giving the exact date of Nawaz's homecoming.

In 2016, Nawaz stepped down as the prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him for life for concealing assets.

Later, the PML-N supremo was convicted in the Al-Azizia and the Aveinfeild Apartment references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which emerged in the aftermath of the Panama Papers leak.

His appeals against the conviction are currently pending in the relevant courts.

It must be noted that the annulment of the Supreme Court (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act 2023 earlier this month by the apex court on the grounds of being "unconstitutional" dampened the hopes of ex-PM Nawaz and Jahangir Tareen, who were seeking to challenge their lifetime disqualifications.

Both Nawaz and Tareen were disqualified under Article 62 of the Constitution by the SC. Had the verdict been in favour of the petitions, both leaders would have gotten an opportunity to challenge their disqualifications, keeping in view their political ambitions amid the upcoming general elections in the country following the completion of the tenure of the National Assembly.