ISLAMABAD: Vice President Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz said on Tuesday that her father and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif would return to Pakistan from London "as soon as his health improves."

Speaking to journalists after Avenfield Apartments review petition hearing, she said Sharif wants to return to Pakistan but he has to stay in London due to his medical treatment.

Maryam did not specify when the former prime minister would return home. "He (Sharif) is restless to come to Pakistan as soon as possible. But there are health issues. No one wants to stay away from home and that too at this (old) age," she said, while dispelling the impression that the former prime minister did not want to return to Pakistan due to the fear of accountability.

The case against the Sharif should have been dismissed after the court decision in Arshad Malik case, she said. To a question, Maryam indicated that the PML-N would attend the opposition's All Parties Conference (APC) against the government. "I don't think Mian sahib (Nawaz Sharif) will ask us not to attend the APC," she said She said the Chairman China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa (retired) should face the allegations regarding offshore properties and businesses of his family members.

The process of accountability of one person would not affect the CPEC, she said. "If the founder of CPEC, who brought investment of $60 billion to Pakistan and was removed because of one iqama and that did not affect the project, then the removal or addition of one person won't affect CPEC. It is a matter of an individual. Allegations have been made against him and he should answer them," she said.

"If you have been appointed to a government post on taxpayers' money and allegations are made against you and evidence is presented, you should face them," she added. Later, she visited Bhara Kahu, a suburban area in Islamabad, where party workers received her.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020