Former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif vows to work toward economic recovery

investing.com:

By Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan's three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif kick-started his party's campaign for next year's election on Saturday after arriving home from four years of self-imposed exile in London, promising to tackle record inflation.

«I want to serve this nation,» said the 73-year-old veteran politician in his address to thousands of his supporters at his eastern hometown of Lahore.

«My only desire is to see this nation prosper,» he said after he compared today's essential goods prices with his last tenure before he was ousted in 2017.

He promised to work toward economic recovery, without laying any plans, saying: «We will control inflation.»

Earlier, he landed in a chartered plane at Islamabad airport where he signed and filed appeals against the convictions he was jailed for before he left the country in 2019.

Sharif had not set foot in Pakistan since leaving for London in 2019 to receive medical treatment while serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption. His convictions remain in force, but a court on Thursday barred authorities from arresting him until Tuesday, when he is to appear in court.

While he cannot run for or hold public office because of his convictions, his legal team says he plans to appeal and his party says he aims to become prime minister for a fourth time.

Sharif's biggest challenge will be to wrest back his support base from his main rival, Khan, who despite being in jail remains popular following his ouster from the premiership in 2022.

Khan, too, is disqualified from the election because of his August graft conviction, which he has appealed.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, a nation of 241 million people, is experiencing the