Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan ‘within 10 days’

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of Pakistan's ex prime minister Nawaz Sharif, yesterday told reporters that she and her father would return to Pakistan within 10 days to appeal against a court verdict that gave Sharif 10 years behind bar.

On Friday after the verdict, Nawaz Sharif said that he is not a thief and that he will return to Pakistan soon.

 "I will continue my struggle from jail. This is a part of the struggle," Sharif told reporters in London, his daughter Maryam Sharif sitting by his side.

 Both of them were convicted by an accountability court in Pakistan on Friday in one of the four cases of corruption against Nawaz Sharif - the Avenfield corruption case, which is related to the ownership of four flats in the posh Avenfield House in London.  Maryam Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The verdict comes three weeks before general elections in Pakistan on July 25.

The verdict, a potentially significant boost for the main opposition party led by former World Cup cricketer Imran Khan, immediately raised questions over whether Sharif will return to Pakistan from London, where his wife is receiving cancer treatment. Pakistan has no extradition treaty with the UK.

Sharif was ousted from his third term as prime minister by the Supreme Court last year following a corruption investigation and banned from politics for life, but remains a powerful symbol for his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Speaking in London, Sharif framed the charges against him as a conspiracy by the powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for roughly half its 70-year history.

"If Sharif does not come back, his party is over," added analyst Rasool Bakhsh Rais.

"If he comes back, he will have to fight cases and he will be suffering a lot -- but in this way he will save his party."