FAISALABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Monday demanded former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to return the alleged stolen money to Pakistan or face trial.

“Nawaz Sharif should return the money or face court trial, then he may go to anywhere he wants. People are asking question from him regarding his properties,” said Fawad Chaudhry while talking to media in Faisalabad.

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He said Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif had acted as the guarantor to bring Nawaz back. He warned that the entire family of even a motorcycle thief was detained.

To a query, the minister said he hoped that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazal ur Rehman would not head to Islamabad. Even if he came to Islamabad, he said, then the government had no problem from it.

However, he suggested, the big parties should resolve the political issues by sitting together.

On December 23, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader and former National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq had kicked up a political storm by claiming that Nawaz Sharif – who has been living in London since November 2019 – would soon “return with a bang”.

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Ayaz had made this revelation during a press conference held in Lahore.

Later talking to a private news channel, the former NA speaker had said, “Something big, like a bang, is going to happen soon. It would happen all of a sudden as you won’t see it happen slowly and gradually.”

The statement apparently set alarm bells ringing in the power corridors with a number of federal ministers, saying that Nawaz will land in jail if he returns.