Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif filed on Wednesday petitions in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking protective bail in Al-Azizia and Avenfield references, Aaj News reported.

According to PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz, who has been in self-imposed exile since 2019 in London after being disqualified for life in the Panama Papers case, will return to Pakistan on October 21 and will be given a “grand welcome”, his party says.

As per sources, Nawaz has booked the air ticket for his return. He is meant to land at Abu Dhabi International Airport on October 21 from where he will fly to Lahore the same day.

His flight will land at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport at 6:25pm.

Meanwhile, the petitions were filed by PML-N’s Ataullah Tarar on Nawaz’s behalf. In the pleas, Nawaz said that he was seeking protective bail in order to surrender before the court on his return to Pakistan.

The pleas said that although the PML-N supremo had not fully recovered, he had decided to come back to Pakistan at a time when the country was faced with the “worst-ever crises of economy and other fronts”.

Later today, a divisional bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb took up the bail petitions.

Nawaz may seek protective bail

The bench issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and fixed the hearing for Thursday (tomorrow).

In 2018, Nawaz was sentenced to 10 and seven years in prison in the Avenfield and Al-Azizia references, respectively.

However, in 2019, his sentence in Al-Azizia reference was suspended by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on medical grounds. He was then permitted to fly to London to seek treatment and has not return since.