Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was in London in voluntary exile, has been granted protective bail from arrest till October 24 in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases ahead of his planned return to the country on October 21 .
In July 2018, Sharif ousted and sentenced to 10 years in jail in connection with the Avenfield properties corruption case for owning assets beyond known income and another one year for not cooperating with National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The 73-year-old politician was convicted in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia cases and was declared a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana vehicle case, which is pending before an accountability court in Islamabad. Nawaz was on bail in these cases when he left for the UK in 2019 for medical treatment.
According to the petitions, Nawaz was seeking protective bail in order to surrender before the court and “submit to due process of justice and avail remedies permissible under the law”.
The pleas sought the Islamabad High Court's direction to stop authorities from arresting Nawaz from the airport on his return to the country on October 21 to allow him to surrender before the court.
The petitions stated that Nawaz could not return on time due to health issues, which were further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The petitions also stated that "any hypothesis of deliberate abscondence is not reconcilable with the petitioner's conduct and track record, which is exemplary".
The pleas mentioned that Nawaz has not fully recovered and was not in an "ideal state of health", but he was returning when the country was facing the "worst-ever crises of the economy and other fronts".
The petitions urged the court to grant the former prime minister protective bail in the interest of justice.
Before moving out of Pakistan, he was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills case before he was allowed to proceed to London in 2019 on "medical grounds".
In 2016, Nawaz Sharif stepped down as the prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him for life for concealing assets.
(With inputs from PTI)