Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after 4 years

Three-time Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned home on Saturday afternoon after four years of self-imposed exile, primed to make a political comeback ahead of elections. The South Asian nation is facing overlapping security, economic and political crises ahead of polls already pushed back to January 2024, with Sharif's primary opponent, the fiercely popular Imran Khan, languishing in jail. Sharif left for London in the middle of his seven-year jail term in the Al-Azizia corruption case on medical grounds in November 2019 after a high court granted him bail for four weeks. During these four years, he was declared a proclaimed offender in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield corruption cases for his continuous absence from the proceedings on appeals against the sentences.