Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cut a tamer figure and opted for the role of elder statesman by emphasising several times that he was not back to take revenge, but to unite the cash-strapped country as he addressed his supporters on homecoming, Pakistani media said on Sunday. Sharif, 73, the three-time prime minister and supremo of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), returned to Pakistan on Saturday after spending four years in self-imposed exile in London.
The Dawn newspaper in its editorial on Sharif’s return titled ‘Cometh the hour’ said that it was as good a welcome event as his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) could have hoped for as a sizable crowd of supporters had gathered for Sharif at Lahore’s Greater Iqbal Park.
The energy and excitement were palpable as he made a return to the limelight, even if Sharif initially seemed impassive the nation only got a glimpse of the emotion that must have been roiling within as he was embraced by his daughter, Maryam, both were overwhelmed, making it a particularly poignant moment.
“In his speech, however, Mr Sharif made no secret of the fact that he was controlling himself with great difficulty. He shared a verse suggesting that his tears would flood the world if he were to start dwelling on the trials and tribulations he had endured,” the paper said. The former premier was keen to remind the crowd that he had been made to pay an immense personal cost.
“There are some wounds that never heal,” he said. He had lost his wife while in jail and could not even say a last goodbye. He was unable to bury his mother. “The two used to greet me at my doorstep whenever I returned home from abroad,” he reminisced. “I lost them to politics.” He also recalled his daughter’s arrest, even though she had not been involved in his politics.
“Yet, where his speech was heavy on pathos, it seemed devoid of force. Gone was the Nawaz Sharif of the ‘vote ko izzat do’ days — this version cut a much tamer figure,” according to the editorial. “In fact, he consciously avoided speaking about the judiciary and military’s transgressions in the political domain. All his supporters got was an oblique reference for the need to not let the past be repeated,” the paper wrote.