Suleman Shehbaz ends exile, leaves UK for Pakistan

LONDON: Suleman Shehbaz Sharif is set to return to Pakistan after ending his four-year exile in London.

The son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reached Saudi Arabia to perform Umra on his way to Pakistan. He will be arriving in Pakistan on Saturday with his wife and children.

Suleman Shehbaz had reached London from Pakistan ahead of the 2018 general elections when several cases were made against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He was also named in several cases along with his father, the current prime minister, his brother Hamza Shehbaz, and other Sharif family members. The Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), headed by Imran Khan’s former accountability minister Shahzad Akbar, had Suleman Sharif investigated in London in Shehbaz Sharif’s money-laundering and misuse of public office case by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), but he was given a clean chit after two years of investigation by the UK’s top anti-corruption sleuths.

Suleman Shehbaz said he was forced to leave Pakistan after fake and manipulated cases were brought against him and his family to facilitate a new political order. He said that nobody goes into exile leaving their homeland behind and it’s only under unfair circumstances that he was left with no choice but to leave Pakistan for safety.

“There was no chance of any justice at that time when a whole system was put in place to bring in the hybrid system, displacing us as a family and a political party. The whole system was based on injustice and relied on lies, manipulations and victimisation. The system was set up to target us with bogus cases and state machinery.”

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) will take up Suleman Shehbaz’s petition seeking protective bail in a money laundering case on Thursday.

The son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approached the IHC through his counsel Amjad Pervaiz on Wednesday to seek two-week protective bail in a money laundering case registered against him, as he had apparently decided to return to the country.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan would take up Suleman’s petition for hearing.

Suleman prayed the court to grant him a protective bail so he could appear before the relevant forum upon his return to the country.