Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Friday issued a statement confirming that a special aircraft is being sent to London for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan, following his recovery.
“Due to the premier’s health issues, PM Office had partly been shifted to London, where a camp office had been set up. Now that the prime minister has recovered after his surgery and is allowed to travel, the whole Camp Office has to be shifted back to Pakistan,” the statement read.The statement further explained that since there were not enough seats available on a regular PIA flight, “the only option was to depute a dedicated aircraft”, in order to accommodate the entire camp.A dedicated Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft has been deputed to transport Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his London camp office back to Pakistan, PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani said on Friday.
"Due to the prime minister's health issues, PM Office had partly been shifted to London where a camp office had been set up," said a statement issued by the airline.
"Now that the PM has recovered after his surgery and is allowed to travel, the whole camp office has to be shifted back to Pakistan. On PIA's regular flights, so many seats were not available, due to which the only option was to depute a dedicated aircraft," the statement said.
The statement did not, however, mention a date for the PM's return to Pakistan.
Shahbaz Sharif flew to London earlier this week for Eid holidays and will likely return to Pakistan with the premier.
Local media reports claim the prime minister is scheduled to return to Pakistan on July 9 after doctors gave him the go-ahead.
PM Nawaz underwent open-heart surgery at a London hospital on May 31.
The need for the surgery arose after the premier went through a cardiac procedure called Atrial Fibrillation Ablation in 2011, "during which certain complications occurred resulting in perforation of heart", Maryam Nawaz earlier told the media.
Many had called it a politically prudent decision to leave the country at a time when opposition parties were exerting pressure on the government in the wake of the Panama leaks, however, the same reason necessitated the visit, a PML-N office-bearer had told Dawn.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) secretary general Jahangir Khan Tareen last week said the party’s preparations for launching a "massive protest movement" over the Panama Leaks soon after Eidul Fitr were in full swing.
Government and opposition leaders had agreed on May 18 to form a 12-member parliamentary committee — including six members each from both sides — that will draft the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the proposed commission to be headed by the chief justice of Pakistan for holding an inquiry against those owning offshore companies as revealed by the Panama Papers leaks.
Both government and the opposition parties had agreed that besides concentrating on the individuals named in the Panama Papers, the committee will also go after those who received kickbacks and commissions, as well as those who had their loans written off illegally.
On May 31, the committee ended its fourth meeting without even discussing the issue.
According to independent observers, the committee may not reach consensus because both sides are poles apart as far as their expectations are concerned.
An investigation published April 3 by an international coalition of more than 100 media outlets ─ based on 11.5 million records and 2.6 terabytes of information drawn from the internal database of Panamaian law firm Mossack Fonseca ─ details how politicians, celebrities and other famous people use banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets.
According to documents available on the ICIJ website, the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children Maryam, Hasan and Hussain "were owners or had the right to authorise transactions for several companies".
The data leak revealed the financial wheelings and dealings of over 200 Pakistanis, including the late Benazir Bhutto, Rehman Malik and other prominent politicians and businessmen.
PM Nawaz has been in London since the end of May recuperating from an open-heart surgery. He is set to return to Pakistan on July 9 after his elongated treatment in England.
Earlier, immediate family members of PM Nawaz also flew to London to celebrate Eidul Fitr with him. Over the past few years, Nawaz has consistently spent the last 10 days of Ramazan away from home; in Saudi Arabia.
Separately, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned his counterpart PM Nawaz on Wednesday, the occasion of Eid, to wish him a speedy recovery from surgery, a sign the two men remain in touch, despite fraught diplomatic relations.
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