Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan after seven years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999.
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Punjabi and Urdu: میاں محمد نواز شریف; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who served as the prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. Nawaz, the longest-serving prime minister of Pakistan, has served a total of more than 9 years.
Born into the upper-middle-class Sharif family in Lahore, Nawaz is the son of Muhammad Sharif, the founder of Ittefaq and Sharif Group. He is the elder brother of Shehbaz Sharif, who also served as the chief minister of Punjab. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, Nawaz is the one of the wealthiest men in Pakistan, with an estimated net worth of at least USD $1.6 billion. Most of his wealth originates from his businesses in steel construction.
Before entering politics in the mid-1980s, Nawaz studied business at Government College and law at the University of Punjab. In 1981, Nawaz was appointed by President Zia as the minister of finance for the province of Punjab. Backed by a loose coalition of conservatives, Nawaz was elected as the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1985 and re-elected after the end of martial law in 1988. In 1990, Nawaz led the conservative Islamic Democratic Alliance and became the 12th prime minister of Pakistan.
After being ousted in 1993, when president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the National Assembly, Nawaz served as the leader of the opposition to the government of Benazir Bhutto from 1993 to 1996. He returned to the premiership after the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) was elected in 1997, and served until his removal in 1999 by military takeover and was tried in a plane hijacking case which was argued by Barrister Ijaz Husain Batalvi, assisted by Khawaja Sultan senior Advocate, Sher Afghan Asdi and Akhtar Aly Kureshy Advocate. After prison and exile for more than a decade, he returned to politics in 2011 and led his party to victory for the third time in 2013.
In 2017, Nawaz was removed from office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding revelations from the Panama Papers case. In 2018, the Pakistani Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz from holding public office, and he was also sentenced to ten years in prison by an accountability court. As of 2021, Nawaz is in London for medical treatment on expired bail.