The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has planned to give a warm welcome to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as he is tentatively scheduled to return home on July 10 after undergoing an open heart surgery in London. Sources within PML-N told Business Recorder that the Prime Minister had earlier planned to arrive before Eid-ul-Fitr but it was delayed due to his health condition on the doctors' advice.
The prime minister will land at Benazir International Airport, Islamabad, instead of Lahore. The sources said that thousands of party workers and senior party leadership including Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, family members and cabinet members will welcome him at Benazir International Airport, Islamabad upon his arrival after seven-week-long stay abroad.
Talking to Business Recorder, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry said the Prime Minister will return after Eid and the party has planned to give a warm welcome to him at the airport. However, he did not give a date of his return. "By the grace of Allah Almighty, he [Prime Minister] is doing fine after the successful open-heart surgery and he will return home as per his doctors advise," he said, adding thousands of party workers will be there to welcome their leader at the airport.
The Prime Minister had had been conducting important meetings via video links. He gave approval to the federal budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 via video link from the Pakistani High Commission in London. The continued absence of the Prime Minister in the country also triggered a legal debate in the country with opposition parties especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which also questioned the legal status of the federal budget passed in the absence of the Prime Minster. Earlier, PTI chief Imran Khan had demanded of the government to appoint a caretaker prime minister in the absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif due to his illness.