Nawaz Sharif reaches Dubai before heading to Islamabad on Saturday

Dubai: Former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has arrived in the UAE to meet a select group of people a day ahead of his return to Pakistan without the fear of immediate arrest upon landing, according to a media report on Friday.

Sharif, also the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo, landed in Dubai late on Thursday night and is expected to return to Pakistan on a chartered flight, ending a self-imposed four-year exile in London, Geo News reported.

In Pakistan, the Islamabad High Court on Thursday provided temporary relief to Sharif as it granted the 73-year-old former prime minister a protective bail in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia corruption cases until October 24. An anti-corruption court also suspended his arrest warrant in the Toshakhana vehicles case.

“His (Sharif’s) arrival comes after a few hours of delay as he was held up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for an important meeting. He was given ‘special protocol’ on arrival at the Dubai airport,” Geo News said, quoting sources.

“Nawaz will be meeting a selected group of people during his two-day stay in Dubai and will leave for Pakistan on Saturday morning — first to Islamabad and then to Lahore,” it said.

The report also said that Sharif would be returning to Pakistan in a chartered plane along with 150 people.

Sharif was on a self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom after jumping bail in 2020. The three-term Pakistan prime minister was serving a seven-year jail term when the Islamabad High Court suspended his sentence in 2019 for eight weeks to allow him to go abroad to seek medical treatment. But he never came back.

Sharif’s return to Pakistan on Saturday is declared by his party as his effort to lead the party's campaign for the general election expected in the last week of January 2024.

He stepped down as Pakistan's prime minister in 2017 after he was disqualified for life from holding public office by the Supreme Court after a probe into his family's wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers leak.

Sharif has consistently denied any wrongdoing and termed it as a politically motivated case.